Heartbreak and Horcruxes at Hogwarts
by Aly Delacour
Summary: The best seventh year story out there! Harry faces an impossible choice when it comes to destroying the final Horcrux. Meanwhile, Hermione is keeping an enormous secret from Ron, and Draco still can't make up his mind which side he's really on.
1. Carlos's Secret

_Carlos's POV_

A lump formed in my throat as I hugged my mother goodbye, not knowing when I would next see her.

'Goodbye, my precious son,' she whispered to me in Spanish, her native tongue, while heavy tears slid down her exquisite cheeks.

'Isn't there any other way, Mum? I don't want to leave you … it's not safe. What if You-Know-Who comes looking for you?'

'You must go to Hogwarts, Carlos. Now that you are seventeen you are of age and nothing is more important than you being there.'

'I understand.'

My eyes filled with tears at what I knew was destined to happen. I was scared. I was, in fact, shaking with utter terror. But it was my fate, and I would do what I had to do.

_Draco's POV_

I swaggered through the Hogwarts front door and glanced around at the familiar Entrance Hall with a sigh of impatience. Finally my final year had arrived and then I would be free of this miserable place.

Then I spotted Harry Potter. He was whispering with that mudblood Hermione Granger and that bloody twerp Weasley. As Harry's eyes lifted and met my gaze, I felt my cheeks start to burn and saw a redness spread across Harry's face that matched my own.

I pulled my eyes away and forced myself back to the conversation between Crabbe and Goyle. But those blundering idiots could never hold my attention for very long, and soon I found my mind wondering to Harry.

'Thought you weren't coming back this year, Potter,' I drawled as Harry walked past me, obviously carefully trying to avoid my gaze.

'I've made an arrangement with MacGonagall. I'll only be here two days a week, the rest of the time I'll be hunting for the last two Horcruxes.'

I nodded, trying to pretend this was new information. It just wouldn't do to let Crabbe or Goyle know that I had spent two weeks of my summer helping Harry find a Horcrux when Ron and Hermione were too busy to help. The pair were on their honeymoon, after deciding to get married in a joint ceremony with Ron's brother. They would be the first married couple to ever attend Hogwarts, and had been given their own private dormitory for that reason. I didn't think Ron and Hermione had any idea of the help I had given Harry, and I certainly did not want them, or worse, my mates, finding out about me working with my sworn enemy. And especially not finding out what _else _I had been doing with Potter.

'But I'm surprised to see _you _ showing your face here,' said Harry pointedly, his eyes burning into mine, challenging me. Well, I could play that game. I knew I could keep up a cool façade long after Potter crumbled.

'Cleared of all charges, in case you've forgotten, _Potter_. Snape had me under the Imperius Curse all year.'

Harry attempted to give a snort of contempt, but I could see him faltering already. He began to turn away from me and I was feeling the signs of my first victory of the year over Potter, when –

'Oh!' Harry said suddenly, softly, his deep, emarald-green eyes widening as he focused on something beyond my shoulder.

Against my better judgment, I turned, expecting it to be a trick. Instead I was faced with the most stunning sight that had ever touched my eyes.

'Er, hi. I'm Carlos.'

_Harry's POV_

The guy was utter perfection. He was beautiful. Just beautiful. Those dark eyes, so full of pain and passion … this was a boy who had definitely felt the same kind of hurt that I had, someone who could understand all that I had gone through. With just that one look, I had been able to see right into Carlos's soul and witness the heartache he had gone through. And that dark, beautiful hair … the way it curled perfectly over his forehead ... it was just so shiny.

'Seen something you like, Potter?' Draco teased scathingly.

I glanced around nervously. 'No idea what you're on about, Malfoy. I think it's _you _ that likes what he sees.'

That wiped the smug grin off Draco's face. He turned away from us, heading for the Great Hall, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I scoured the crowd, looking for the new boy, but alas, he seemed to have disappeared. Still searching the sea of students, I followed my friends into the Great Hall. As luck would have it, a certain tall, blonde Slytherin was again right in front of me. I heard him telling his cronies that the new student was sure to be in their house.

'He's sooo going to be sorted into Gryffindor, Malfoy! Just look at him! He's got Gryffindor written all over him!' I taunted – just because I knew it would annoy Draco – as I pushed past the Slytherins to get to my house table.

'You're wrong, Potter. I can spot a true Slytherin when I see one,' Draco smirked. We eyed each other with a bitter mixture of fading passion and the rivalry we had always shared.

'Why do you both care so much, anyway?' Hermione asked suspiciously. Ron, hovering protectively at his new wife's side, looked baffled at the banter between us: the pair who had previously so famously detested each other with every fibre of our beings.

'_I _ don't care!' Draco and I both announced at once. Scowling at each other once more, we turned their backs on each other and headed to our separate tables. I vaguely heard Hermione muttering that something strange was going on with Draco and I, but I barely paid attention. My eyes had just alighted on something far more interesting.

Carlos was heading up the queue of students waiting to be sorted, his perfectly-formed tall, dark, muscular frame towering over the first-years. My stomach gave an enormous flutter. I had never felt anything quite like this before.

The Sorting began, and the first to be called up was ………..

'Santiero, Carlos,' came Professor Sprout's cheery voice. She had taken over the post of Deputy Headmistress since MacGonagall became Headmistress since Dumbledore died.

I watched, breathless, along with the rest of the school, as the magnificent figure made his way to the font of the Great Hall. He moved with a quiet grace, his well-developed biceps and abs just visible under his thin school robes. Normally it would have looked rather ridiculous to see a muscular seventeen-year-old sitting on the tiny stool instead of the usual teensy eleven-year-olds, but I was far too mesmerised to think it.

The whole school waited with baited breath.

'Ravenclaw!' the Sorting Hat yelled. I stared dumbfounded with shock. How could this be? Carlos _belonged _in Gryffindor: any fool could see that!_ Well, at least he didn't get put in Slytherin_, I consoled myself. That would have been dreadful.

As my eyes followed Carlos to the Ravenclaw table, I caught Draco's eye and we both sent a glare of contempt at each other. I saw Draco's gaze quickly turn back to Carlos, and felt a stab of realisation that Draco obviously had feelings for this new boy, too. I found, to my pleasure, that I no longer cared who Draco was interested in. That brief period where I had thought Draco and I belonged together was, thankfully, over. Now as long as Draco stayed away from Carlos, I couldn't care less who the little ferret dated.

'Told you it wouldn't be your house!' Draco and I both exclaimed icily to each other after the feast, before stalking off to our respective common rooms. Hermione and Ron were both eyeing me very oddly by this point, but I did not care. I was in love ………

_Carlos's POV_

I looked up as the classroom door opened and the famous Harry Potter entered the Transfiguration room. I had heard so much about him from my mother, a famous Spanish singer who had raised me by herself in Barcelona

Harry barely looked at me as he slid into a seat beside me and pulled out his books. When I said hello, my thick accent standing out more than ever now that I was surrounded by English people, Harry mumbled a reply and his cheeks looked slightly pink. It was quite sweet, really. I could tell immediately he had a crush on me. Plenty of people did when they first met me. It was only after they found about my past, found out who I really was, that they stayed away … far away. Well, I did not know whether Harry and I were going to end up as classmates, friends or more, but I knew he would understand my history. He had a past that was just as tragic, if not more so, than mine, after all.

But over the course of that hour-long class, Harry and I got chatting and I soon realised there was a lot more to him that shy blushes and being the boy who lived and the Chosen one.

_Harry's POV_

I had just returned to Hogwarts after finally managing to locate the second-last Horcrux. It was really really tough, one of the toughest weeks of my life, but all my cares melted away as soon as I saw his smile.

'Harry!' Carlos exclaimed, rushing towards me looking horrified. 'I was so worried, you haven't been at school for over two weeks!'

Lapping up the attention, I sank into the seat Carlos pulled out for me and looked up at his beautiful brown eyes that were framed by the most luscious, dark eyelashes I had ever seen in my life.

'I found a Horcrux and then I had to go to St Mungoe's for a few days,' I said weakly ……. even though I actually felt fine now. I waited for Carlos to fawn over me.

'You … you found a Horcrux?' Carlos repeated dumbly. He no longer looked concerned about my health, but just plain worried about this piece of news.

'Yes, it was Godric Gryffindor's old wand, I found it in Godric's Hollow. It turns out he was an ancestor of mine and my Dad had hidden it somewhere only I could find it!'

'So … so you've only got one left to find?' Carlos stated, looking dazed.

'Yes, Carlos, obviously! What's wrong with you?' I said irritably and immediately regretted it. The poor guy was obviously just worried about what would happen to me when I had found all the Horcruxes and had to face Voldemort.

'And do you – do you have any idea what it is?' Carlos asked fearfully. Poor guy, he really was very worried about me.

'I am pretty sure it's something that once belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw,' I said thoughtfully. 'Hey, wait a moment! Didn't I hear somewhere that y_ou _ were a descendent of Ravenclaw?'

Carlos looked uncomfortable. 'Er, yeah, that's right.'

'You can help me then!' I exclaimed happily. Maybe it would put his mind at rest a little if he was more involved in the work I was doing. Plus it gave me an excuse to spend even more time with him. Just wait and see what Draco Malfoy thought of that!

_Draco's POV_

That damn Potter. He's taking up every minute of Carlos's free time, dragging him off to research Horcruxes at all hours of the day. How am I supposed to get to know him when Potter's taking up all his time? Grrr

_Harry's POV_

Sitting in the library with Mrs Hermione Weasley, I was spending more time gazing at Carlos who was sitting with a bunch of Ravenclaws than working on my Tranfiguration essay. I really couldn't afford to waste the days I was at school, but my brain was just too fuzzy when he was around. Without meaning to, I gave a huge, depressed sigh. Hermione looked up, startled. I thought she was going to give me into trouble but she instead gave me a sad look.

'He likes you too, Harry,' Hermione whispered very, very quietly. I opened my mouth to deny that I was interested in Carlos at all, but I knew there was no use: Hermione Granger, sorry, Hermione _Weasley _always knew these things.

Since it was clear Hermione had guessed I liked men now, I confirmed her suspicions. After a little discussion, she gave me an odd look and said, 'Harry … when you realised this about yourself … you didn't … _experiment_ with anyone we know, did you?'

She had a very pointed look on her face and I saw her eyes dart to where Draco Malfoy sat two tables away. Merlin! How had she guessed!

'Course not, what do you take me for? As if I'd fool around with Draco Malfoy!' I said a little too forcefully with a nervous giggle.

She fixed me with a knowing stare. 'I never mentioned Draco, Harry. _You _did.'

Oh dear.

In Charms that day Hermione and I sat at the very back and Hermione's expression became more and more glazed over as I excitedly told her everything that had happened with Carlos. It was really great to be able to finally be honest with one of my friends about it all.

'Harry, to be frank, I think you need to spend less time worrying about Carlos and more time worrying about that final Horcrux! You still don't know what it is!' she hissed at me.

'Are you paying attention, Mrs Weasley?' Prof. Flitwick admonished gently.

Hermione glanced around in confusion, clearly looking for Ron's mother, before jumping and exclaiming 'Oh! You mean _me!_' and turning very red.

_Draco's POV_

Now was my chance. Finally Carlos was alone without that stupid Potter hanging off his arm. It was pathetic the way potter hung around him. As if a man like Carlos would ever be interested in him. But Harry had gone looking for the last Horcrux and Carlos wasn't aloud to go with him, even though they both begged and begged MacGonagall to let him go too. Carlos was sitting in the library looking very lonely, and I couldn't resist those delicious brown eyes any longer.

'Hi Carlos' I said sitting down opposite him. Carlos squinted at me. 'Do I know you?' he asked me. I was hurt, but not deterred form my aim of getting to know him very well indeed……

'I'm Draco Malfoy' I told him.

Carlos nodded and gave me a big grin that made my knees go weak even though I was sitting down. 'I've heard a lot about you, Draco Malfoy,' Carlos said in his chocolately-smooth voice and sexy accent.

'And I don't know anything about you, Carlos Santiero,' I told him seductiveley. 'So I think we should even the score, don't you ……'

_Carlos's POV_

'My father was brutally murdered by Voldemort when I was a baby,' I told Draco, even though I'd never told anyone before. Some how I knew he'd understand. His cool grey eyes were like open pools into his soul and I knew I could trust this boy.

'Do you know why?' Draco asked, his eyes wide.

'He was a Death Eater, one of Voldemort's most faithful servants during the first war, but when he refused to hand over his own wife and son to Voldemort, he was killed for it.'

Draco clapped a hand over his mouth. 'That's awful!'

I nodded sadly. But I could not bring myself to tell Draco the rest of it.

'What did Voldemort want with you and your mum?'

I sighed and fixed a look of pained ignorance on my face, though I knew exactly what Voldemort had wanted me for.

'I don't know what Voldemort wanted with us,' I lied. Merlin, I hate to lie. But Draco could never understand what my link to Voldemort was, no one could. 'Maybe I'll never know.'

'You know, my father's a Death Eater, too,' Draco whispered to me, looking ashamed. 'I used to think it was kinda cool, but now I think he kinda sucks for it, you know? What do you think o your dad?'

'My mother always speaks highly of him for sacrificing himself to save us. Me? I hate the guy.' And that part was completely true.

Just then Harry turned up in the library again. I could tell immediately form looking into his beautifull, soulfull green eyes that h'ed had no luck with the Horcrux. But then Harry's look of disappointment turned into one of anger.

'What the hell are you doing talking to HIM!' he shouted at me.

_Harry's POV_

Carlos ran out of the library, but I didn't care. All my energy was focused on that bloody Malfoy. He ruined _everything _for me! And now he was trying to take Carlos away from me!

'Damn you, Malfoy, Carlos is mine and mine alone! Keep your filthy Death Eater paws off him!' I shouted, pulling out my wand. Madam Pince started walking towards us looking furious but I quickly stupefied her. I didn't care if I got detention – this was more important.

'Or what, Potter?' Draco drawled, twirling his own wand between his pale, slender fingers. I blanched, wondering what I ever saw in Draco Malfoy.

'Or I'll avada kedavra you. Now stay away from Carlos!'

I hurried out of the library door before Madam Pince could wake up and I found Carlos waiting outside the door.

'Sorry, Harry. I didn't know it would upset you that I was with Draco. I didn't know you hated him.' Carlos looked genuinely sorry and I decided to forgive him.

'Yeah, well I do. Draco Malfoy is bad news, you should stay out of his way.'

I couldn't help but smirk at Draco as Carlos and I whispered together just outside the library. Draco looked as though steam might shoot out of his ears. He was so jealous. It was obvious. And a bit sad really.

'I can't really talk just now, Harry, I have to get to my private Advanced Arithmacy class, but come to my common room at midnight.' Carlos shot me a shy grin and pressed a piece of paper into my hand. As he hurried awayfrom the library, I looked at what he had given me. One single word was scrawled on it.

_Bulbadox.  
_

Several minutes spent in utter confusion, I finally smacked myself on the head as I realised: it was the password to his common room!

At twenty to midnight, unable to restrain myself any longer, I hurried towards the Ravenclaw common room with a huge grin stretching my cheeks, clutching the piece of paper Carlos had given me. Checking the coast was clear, I whispered the password to the Gargoyle guarding the door and climbed over the threshold as quietly as possible.

The sound of very quiet chatter reached my ears. I knew I was there too early maybe I should have waited till midnight. I desperately hoped whoever was there would not notice me in their common room. I'd have an awful lot of explaining to do.

The voices were coming from a sofa that faced away from me towards the fire. The room was lit very dimly and I could not make out who it was. Curiosity getting the better of me I moved closer.

I stopped at the sight of two familiar heads.

Two heads bent together in a very cosy pose.

It was Carlos. Carlos AND DRACO.

_Carlos's POV_

I looked up sharply, convinced I had just heard the common room door click closed, but no one was there.

'Sorry, Draco, what were you saying?'

Draco had appeared out of the blue in my common room tonight and insisted on showing me something in his Ancent Runes textbook that he needed help with. But even after we'd both been bent over the book for half an hour, he still could not seem to grasp the translation of the symbols. Strange, really: it was basic stuff and Draco was good at the subject. Not as good as me, but then I had won the European championship of Ancent Runes last year.

Looking up, I saw a rather triumphant look on Draco's face.

'Oh, so you understand it now?' I asked hopefully. Harry was due to arrive any minute and I was desperate to get rid of Draco, though of course I would never be thoughtless enough to show it.

'What?' said Draco distractedly. He had an odd sort of gleam in his eye and seemed to be looking over my shoulder at the door. 'Oh yeah I do thanks Carlos.'

'Okay … well, I suppose you'd better get back to your own common room,' I said as tactfully as I could manage. 'You don't want to get in trouble!'

'Actually, I thought maybe we could hang out here for a while,' Draco said, stretching and leaning back lazily on the sofa. He wiggled his eyebrows at me but I had no idea what he meant.

'Actually, Draco, I'm quite tired,' I lied, faining a yawn. Merlin, I hate to lie.

Draco had a weird look on his face now. He sat forward, looking at me intensely, and then suddenly I realised his hand was resting on my thigh.

'Woah, Draco, what's going on?' I said nervously, jumping up.

'Come on, you can't tell me you don't know,' Draco said smoothly, standing up and looking into my eyes. Slowly he moved towards me until I realised he was leaning in, about to kiss me, and leapt back.

'Sorry, mate, I think you've got the wrong idea here,' I told him anxiously. Gosh, why was this always happening to me? It's so hard when you realise everyone is so blinded by their attraction to you that they don't take the time to get to know the real you. It's really quite hurtful.

And now Draco. I really thought he was a friend. Turns out he only wanted me for my body. I was so disappointed. Sure, he was kind of sexy, in that pale, delicate sort of way. A little too effeminate for my tastes, though. Unlike some other Hogwarts men I could mention. My mind strayed to Harry, and I saw Draco's face turn mutinous.

'It's that bloody Potter, isn't it?'

'I'm really sorry,' I said weakly. 'I think I'm in love with him. We're sort of … involved.'

I thought I saw a flash of an evil grin cross his face, but then it was gone and Draco looked miserable again, and I decided I had imagined it.

'Sorry,' I repeated.

'It's fine. _Merlin _ it's not like I'm in love with you or anything. See you around, Carlos.' And Draco was gone.

And so I waited for Harry. I waited all night. But Harry never arrived.

_Draco's POV_

I leaned against the outside of the Ravenclaw common room door, relishing the cool air in the corridor after the stifling heat in front of the fire. My heart was hammering and my breath coming in ragged gasps. It was only when I noticed spatters of tears on the floor around my feet that I realised I was crying.

It was over. Carlos was only interested in that freak, Potter.

Blindly, I made my way back to my common room. I thought I'd have at least been pleased that Potter had thought he'd seen us kissing as we leaned over that stupid textbook. But now it was a negligible victory compared with what I'd lost.

In the morning, after crying all night and having no sleep at all, I was heading to the Great Hall for breakfast even though I was not the slightest bit hungry, when I was cornered by Potter himself, looking furious, his wand out.

'Are you happy, Malfoy? _Are you?_' Harry spat at me venomously, his chest heaving. 'Carlos picked _you_, you win!'

I felt as though I was being torn in two. I loved Carlos. I truly, honestly loved him, more than I ever thought I was capable of. But deep down, I knew Carlos would never want me, would never be happy with me. And so I found myself speaking the words which would end my chances of happiness … forever.

'Harry … it's _you _Carlos loves. I care about him too much to stand in the way of his happiness.'

Harry looked as though he could not believe his eyes.

'Did I just hear you right, Draco?' he whispered.

'You did.'

'But last night …'

'Nothing happened. I know what you thought you saw, but it wasn't what it looked like.'

Harry looked as though he did not know whether to laugh or cry.

'You're truly a good friend, Draco. I never knew you had it in you to be so chivalrous.'

And before I knew what was happening, Harry had given me a very quick, very gruff hug.

'Get off me, Potter! I'm doing this for Carlos, not you!' I yelled, but I could feel a smile creeping onto my lips in spite of myself.

'Thanks,' Harry told me earnestly.

'Well, what are you waiting for?' I challenged him, though feeling as though my heart might break. 'Go get him!'

_Harry's POV_

My heart racing, I sneaked down to the Ravenclaw corridor, silently praising myself for always carrying my trusty invisibility cloak. My mind was still spinning from Draco's gallant action, but Draco was not the person my mind was focusing on right now. I reached the door to the common room and recited the password Carlos had slipped into my hand the previous night. It seemed so long ago.

The common room was deserted, everyone at breakfast. I made my way up to Carlos's dormitory and knocked softly on the door. When I got no answer, I pushed open the door and found Carlos, fully dressed, lying on his bed on top of the sheets. I gave a small gasp as I took in how utterly gorgeous he was. Every time I saw him I had to pinch myself to see if I had dreamed up this perfect specimen of manly beauty.

'Harry,' Carlos greeted me. His eyes were full of hurt. 'You never showed up last night.'

'I'm sorry,' I told him earnestly. I sat down beside him and reached out, about to take his hand. Then I pulled my hand back feeling shy. Carlos smiled at me simply and took my small hand into his large, manly one.

'I didn't think it was me you were interested in,' I mumbled shyly.

'Of course it's you, Harry … it's always been you.'

As Carlos leaned closer to me, I felt his blood pounding in my ears. This was so much more intense that it had ever been with Ginny, or Cho … or even Draco. This was what love really felt like.

As our lips met, fireworks seemed to explode overhead. I felt a sense of happiness that I had never known before in my whole tragic life.

But as Carlos pulled away, his expression did not quite match the look of extasy that I had expected, that I was feeling myself. Carlos's face was now clouded by greif.

'Harry … there's something you don't know about me,' Carlos whispered tragically.

I reached out and brushed Carlos's cheek tenderly with the tips of my fingers. To my dismay, Carlos flinched and moved away.

'Carlos, baby … whatever it is, you can tell me. There is nothing you can say that will make me love you any less.'

'You don't understand!' Carlos cried. He leapt up and began to pace in between the beds in the dormitry, wringing his hands with worry and fear. I began to feel scared. I had never heard Carlos's rich, silky voice rise before, and I hated being on the receiving end of the man I loved's anger.

'Carlos …' I stood up, reached out and took his hand, and this time Carlos did not pull away, though his eyes stared resolutely at the floor. 'Whatever it is, we can get through it together. You just need to trust me.'

Carlos slowly raised his head, his eyes moving up last of all to meet my gaze. He drew in a deep, shaky breath.

'Harry … I'm a Horcrux.'


	2. Draco's Secret

_Carlos's POV_

What was I doing? I'd never told a _soul_ this before, and Harry was the one person who shouldn't find this out.

Harry stared at me, a look of utmost confusion on his face. For several long seconds, I waited for him to shout, cry, anything. Then his face cracked. He began to laugh. He laughed until tears ran down his cheeks.

'Harry … what?' I stuttered, confused.

'That's the best joke I've heard in ages, Carlos, thanks! I needed a laugh with everything that's happening!' Harry was beaming at me.

'Harry … I don't think you understand what I'm saying. The reason my dad was killed, the reason You-Know-Who wanted me … '

Harry's grin wavered, but he still looked at me blankly.

'I'm the last – the last ... oh Harry, I'm the thing you need to destroy …'

'Omg, Carlos. What are you saying.'

'I'm saying … as long as I'm alive, Voldemort cannot be killed.'

He finally seemed to get it. Harry jumped up from the bed, drained of colour and shaking like a leaf.

'I can't – I can't deal with this just now,' Harry stuttered, his face going red now. 'Its to much … to much … can't handle … not fair …why do these things always happen to me!' he finshed shrilly and stumbled out of my dormitery.

I flopped back onto my bed, feeling really depressed. I knew Harry would be upset, but I didn't expect him to reeact like that.

_Oh Harry … I'm sorry_ I thought sadly.

_ Draco's POV_

I was skiving off Transfigration, hiding away in the library, feeling like talking to nobody. Every few minutes Carlos's face swam in front of me and I felt my world crashing down over and over again. I had tried to read at first, but long since given it up, spending what seemed like hours with my head resting on my arms on the desk, trying to hold back the salty tears that threatened to overflow from my eyes.

Even Madam Pince wasnt coming near me. I don't know if she was scared of me like most of the Hogwarts students, or whether the old bat was just able to tell when someone really just needed to be left alone. Who knew she could be so sensitive. I think it was the first time I had ever set foot in that library without getting yelled at from her.

Then the last person I wanted to see (well, maybe second last, seeing Carlos might have been worse) appeared, framed in the doorway. Harry Potter glanced around for an empty table, appeared not to notice me, then disappeared into an even more dark and deserted corner than mine was. If I didn't know better I'd have thought Potter looked almost depressed. And what on earth was he doing here when he could be with his precious Carlos? If it was me, I'd not have left Carlois's dromitory for about three days solid.

Curiosity got the better off me .. I had to know if there was trouble in paradise already. After all, this was potter ... nothing ever went smooth for him. Just look at Cho and ginny they only lasted about five minutes each.

'All rite Potter what's up with ya?' I said brightly. He looked up from his huge charms book and threw his pen down.

'Nothing.' He said looking thoroughly pissed off.

'Everything going well with carlos?'

Harry gave me the dirtiest look evar. 'No it's not, if you must know.'

I suppressed a grin. 'Go on, tell me.'

I expected Harry to tell me to piss off, but instead he gave me a teary look and said 'I don't think things can ever work with me and Carlos.'

'Well then that makes two of us,' i said, sitting down.

'You love him too, don't you?' Harry asked me. I nodded, biting back my tears again, but one look at his own woeful expressions sent my eyes overflowing. His soon followed.

We cried in each others' arms for a long time. Madam Pince floated past us a few times, checking on us, but rather than shout at us, she simply gave us sympathetic looks and shook her head slightly. Maybe the old witch was getting soft in her old age. Or maybe she was finally geting it on with old Filch.

Suddenly a pair of voices hit my ears: one a shrill, bossy tone, the other a tired-sounding voice saying 'Yes, Hermione ... whatever you say, Hermione ...'

Harry jumped as though he had been burned, obviously not wanting his friends to catch me and him talking, much less hugging.

He ran past The Weasleys, bumping Hermione's shoulder and ignoring her and Ron's calls of 'Harry, what's wrong!'

I shrugged at Hermione's questioning look, then she seemed to remember she hated me and stuck out her tongue at me, before grabbing Hubby's arm and dragging him away after Harry.

_ Hermione's POV _

There was something up with Harry and I was determined to find out what it was. Ron of course was oblivious. Honestly! And that pair call themselves best friends ...

'Ron, you need to talk to Harry,' I told him. Bossy? Me? Never!

'Oh, Her-_mione_!' he moaned. 'Why is it always _me_ that has to talk to him!'

'Because he's your best mate, it's your job!'

'But you're better with all that touchy-feely stuff!'

'Well, duh, Ron, of course I am! But it would mean more to Harry coming from you.'

'Well, what am I meant to say? You know, things haven't exactly been the same with me and Harry lately ...'

I sighed. Sometimes wondered if it was a good idea, me telling Ron about Harry being gay. But you know, sometimes these things just sound better coming from a girl. And Harry would never have told Ron himself. Yup, it was definately all for the best. Only now Ron always sneaked glances at Harry out of the corner of his eye, as if trying to catch Harry checking him out. And Harry wouldn't sit anywhere near Ron in case Ron got nervous. It was like there was a hippogriff in the room that no one talked about.

'Just tell him you noticed he's not been himself and ask if everything's ok!'

'But what if he ... _you know_ ...' Ron trailed off his brow deeply furrowed.

'If he what?' Hermione asked, concerned. Surely Ron didn't think Harry would hit on him!

'What if he ... _cries_?' Ron said under his breath as though it was a dirty word.

'Ron, has Harry ever cried in front of you before?'

'Well, no, but –'

'Just because he's gay now doesen't change who he is. Trust me he's not going to cry.'

Ten minutes later Ron was giving me a look of fury mingled with utmost horror as Harry sobbed loudly with his head on Ron's lap. I shrugged helplessly at him.

_Harry's POV_

Hermione and Ron were whispering about me again. In fact, most of the common room seemed to be. Every time I remembered how I had cried on Ron's shoulder in front of the whole of Gryffindor house, my stomach squirms with embarrassment.

But I had bigger things to worry about. I had thought and thought about this whole Carlos-is-a-horcrux thing, and I knew there was only one solution.

'Hermione.'

'Yes Harry?' Hermione looked up from the photo album she was organising with her wedding pictures.

'I need your help, babes.'

'Anything, Harry! What's up?'

Ron looked on curiously. I motioned to the two of them to come with me. 'Not here,' I told them.

We went for a walk in the deserted school grounds, shivering against the cold that was keeping everyone else indoors, and I told them the whole story.

'Now I need your help. You've never let me down before, Hermone.'

'Harry, what on earth can I possibly do?' Hermione asked with wide eyes.

I took a deep breath. 'I need you to find a way to destroy the Horcrux without killing Carlos.'

_Hermione's POV_

I was spending way too much time in the library, and coming from me, that's a schock. I had read up on everythig in the restricted section and even nicked some books from our DADA teacher's private office. I had quite a lot of new information, but there was hardly anything about people being Horcruxes, and certainly nothing about saving the person while destroying the Horcrux.

It was time to go back to basics.

It was time to talk to Carlos.

'So you see, Carlos, Harry is determined to find a way round this,' I explained to him.

Carlos looked immeasurabley relieved. 'I thought Harry had just given up on me,' he whispered tearfully.

'Nonsense, of course not! Harry's in love with you.'

'He hasn't spoken to me in days,' Carlos said mournfully.

'He was just in shock,' I told Carlos briskly. 'Now he's ready to try anything to sort this out.'

'Oh Hermione, this is so wonderful!' Carlos gushed. 'I really apprecaite everything your doing for me!'

I nodded. 'Yes, yes,' I said impatiently. 'Now, tell me absolutely _everything_ about it.'

I listened, making notes and occasionally remembering to make sympathetic murmurs whenever Carlos mentioned something particularly sad and was looking at me expectantly for a reaction.

'So I don't get it, why did your mum send you to Hogwarts?' I asked confused.

'I'm not sure,' Carlos said. 'She said this was where I'd be safest, but i don't know if she meant safe from being hurt or safe from Voldemort getting to me.'

'But Voldemort's not exactly going to harm you if you're his horcrux is he?'

'No, but he would keep me

'Hermione ... I can't thank you enough,' Carlos told me again. 'But can you just do one last thing for me?'

I sighed inwardly. I still had my NEWT work to do on top of all this! But I plasted a grin on my face and nodded.

'Can you try and get Harry to talk to me again? I really miss him ...'

'Of course,' I told him, my heart melting at his puppy dog eyes. Gosh, I could really see what Harry and all the other boys saw in him. Shame he wasn't into girls ...

_Carlos's POV_

There he was. It was the first time I had seen Harry in days, and we still hadn't spoken since he ran out of my dormitory.

'Hi Harry,' I said, giving him a small, hopeful smile.

'Hello,' he said stiffly, not quite looking at me.

'How's Hermione's research going?' I asked tentatively.

'Good, yeah. The info you gave her is really helping her.'

'Great! So you think she's onto something?'

Harry looked pained for a second but quickly turned his expression newtral again. 'Not yet. You know, the chances of any solution existing are very low, Carlos.'

'And if Hermione doesn't find anything ...?'

Harry looked at me with a hardened expression.

'I'm sorry, Carlos. There are things happening out there that are bigger than you and me. I'll keep researching, but in the end you know what I'll have to do if we can't find anything.'

And Harry walked away from me.

I slowly made my way back to my common room, my feet becoming heavier and heavier with every step. Only days ago I had had a ray of hope that everything would turn out ok. I wouldn't have to die, and Harry wouldn't have to kill the love of his life. But now all i could see was bleak, murky darkness ahead.

'How's the walking talking Horcrux?' came a snide drawl from a dark alcove. My heart dropped into my stomach.

'What?' I said faintly.

'You heard,' Draco said softly, emerging from the shadows and giving me a For the first time I saw Draco Malfoy for what he was: a manipulative, cruel arsehole.

'What exactly do you know, Draco?' I said dangerously.

'More than _you_ do,' Draco replied tartly.

_ Draco's POV_

Silly Carlos. Silly, silly Harry. Who would have thought anyone would believe that hilarious story about me being under Snape's Imperius Curse? That was the lie Snape, The Dark Lord and I had always planned to use if my Death Eater status was revealed. It worked like a dream! Neither Harry nor Carlos realised that it had been me who orchestrated the whole thing. Me who planted the idea in Mrs Santiero's mind that Hogwarts was the safest place for her son. Me that helped Harry discover he likes men and me who manipulated he and Carlos into falling for each other by making Harry think I like Carlos too. They are both so stupid. Them and everyone else.

The only complication I didn't foresee was for me to fall in love with Carlos for real ...


	3. Hermione's Secret

Ron's POV

Yawning as I sat down to breakfast in the Great Hall, I absently watched as Hermione piled scrambled eggs onto her plate.

'You know, Hermione, you've been eating an awful lot lately, maybe you should slow down a little,' I said breezily.

It was as if a Silencing Charm had just been cast over the whole of Gryffindor table. Ginny stared at me, frozen in horror with a spoonful of cornflakes halfway into her mouth. Seamus spat out a mouthful of pumpkin juice. Harry glanced warily between me and Hermione, looking more frightened than he had the times he faced You-Know-Who.

'What?' Hermione replied in a quiet but deadly tone.

'I'm not – not saying that you're getting ... of course not ... course you don't look ... you – you look perfect … I just mean ... just mean ... you might get a stomach-ache ... and ... I'm sorry!' I stammered feebly, my heart beginning to hammer. In my head I could hear the imminent rustle of divorce papers.

Hermione regarded me carefully before slowly lowering her fork to her plate.

'Sweetie,' she began in a syrupy tone, giving me a loving smile.

'Er, yes, dear?' I replied nervously.

Her expression turned menacing before you could say Crumpled-Horned Snorkack. 'If you ever call me fat again, whether it's by accident or not, I will see to it that your freckles are rearranged to rival what I did to Marietta's face.'

And with that she flounced out of the Great Hall.

'Nice one, _Ron_,' my sister said scathingly as she ran after her.

Even Harry, who _never_ had a clue about women (and now I know why!) turned to me and said, 'Mate, that was _so_ not cool.'

Carlos's POV

There was some kind of outburst at the Gryffindor table this morning. Harry's friend Hermione ran out of the hall in the huff, and Harry and Ron had looked really angry at each other. Hey, maybe Harry and Ron are having an affair and Hermione just found out? My heart skipped a beat as I thought of that. No, I told myself. Harry would never do that to me.

I sighed as I thought about Harry. I couldn't believe what a mess everything had turned into. Why couldn't I have waited a bit longer to tell him? Waited until our relationship had a real foundation and he wouldn't have been so scared off? I always do this – I trust people too soon and believe them when they say nothing I can tell them will change things. Harry was just like all the others, running off scared. Although, I had to admit that if I hadn't told Harry about myself, his friend wouldn't have started searching for a solution. Maybe things would turn out fine.

But Hermione had looked very distracted and upset this morning. I decided to skip my first class to go and see her, find out if she was ok and subtly see how the research was going ... something told me she wouldn't be at her class, either ...

Hermione's POV

It was five past nine, and I should have been in Charms. I just couldn't bring myself to leave my room, much less face Ron and my classmates.

I sighed. It wasn't really Ron's comment about my eating that had upset me. The truth was, I had run out of the Great Hall because I suddenly felt like I was going to be sick. Even now, I was sprawled on my bathroom floor, my head hanging over the toilet. I sniggered to myself in between heaves. Eating too much, puking in the morning, anyone would think I was ...

I gasped. _ Pregnant._

A knock came on my door.

'Go away, Ron!' I called tearfully.

'It's not Ron. It's Carlos!' came a deep, sexy voice.

'Oh – oh – just hold on!' I called and got to my feet, hastily washing my face and flushing the toilet, praying the next wave of nausea would hold off for a while.

'Hi, I was just wondering – oh, Hermione, are you ok? Have you been crying?' Carlos suddenly looked concerned as he set eyes on me. He put his arm around me and I reveled in his strong, masculine arms.

'No, no, not crying ...' I realised my eyes must be all red after vomiting. 'I was just – never mind. I'm fine.'

I didn't want it getting back to Ron or Harry that I had morning sickness, if that was really what it was. Those boys may be rather dense when it came to girly troubles, but I had a feeling that between them they might manage to put two and two together, and I wasn't ready for that yet.

'So what can I do for you?' I asked Carlos, plastering a smile on my face.

'Nothing! I honestly just wanted to check on you.'

I raised my eyebrows at him.

'Okay, okay, and I wanted to see if Harry's said anything about me ...?'

I nodded knowingly.

'Why don't you ask me yourself?' came a voice from the door.

Harry's POV

Carlos turned round and his face broke into a wide smile. He moved towards me slowly, nervously, and I gave his arm a quick squeeze, my stomach fluttering as I saw him relax. Behind him, Hermione was beaming at us, though I noticed she looked rather peaky. I made a mental note to speak to her later and see if she was okay after Ron's thoughtless comment at breakfast.

'Carlos ... I'm sorry I've been so distant. I've been having a hard time dealing with this. I've just lost so many people I care about –' I drew in a painful breath, and was comforted by the understanding in his eyes. 'I'm ready to face it now. Ready to face it _together_.'

Carlos grinned at me and took my hand.

'Ohhh, you guys are just too cute!' Hermione exclaimed, and promptly burst into tears. Carlos and I exchanged a look that plainly said, _mad, that one!_ Then we linked arms, said goodbye to Hermione, and headed to Carlos's room for some long-awaited quality time alone.

_** Draco's POV **_

Merlin's beard, was _no one_ going to their classes today?

I sat in Charms, glancing around in confusion. Only me and Longbottom were there, and he looked even more worried than me. Had I got the timetable mixed up or something? Where the hell was everyone! Even Flitwick hadn't bothered his arse showing up.

I was in a foul mood. I had apparated away from school to see Snape earlier this morning, missing breakfast in the process, which always makes me grumpy. Snape was, I must admit, quite pleased with my progress. Having successfully manipulated Potter into falling for Carlos, Snape looked almost happy, which was practically unheard of, and told me there was nothing more to do than sit back and watch Potter's world come crashing down when Carlos told him the truth ... if he ever did, that is. I was fairly confident that Carlos had not told him, and would not plan to for a while.

Although I had to admit, I was kicking myself for letting Carlos know that I knew. I just couldn't help gloating – anything to hide my hurt feelings. If he lets slip to Harry that I know, we could all be in trouble, and Snape would kill me! Never mind what the Dark Lord will do to me ...

Finally, the classroom door opened and the Professor entered, blinking at the emptiness of his classroom.

'Goodness me! Two students!' Flitwick exclaimed. 'Have I missed an announcement? Are today's classes cancelled!'

I was about to say yes when Longbottom interrupted me.

'No, Professor! Harry's just not here because he was, er, ill. And so was Ron ... and Hermione ...' Longbottom stuttered to a halt pathetically and I rolled my eyes.

'And the rest of them? The Hufflepuffs, the Ravenclaws ...?' Flitwick raised his eyebrows at us and Longbottom turned bright red. 'Some sort of epidemic, is it?'

'Well, Professor, ' I began smoothly, 'you don't want the others to miss the lesson, so shall we just leave and do some private study?' Private study, my arse. I was going back to bed for an hour.

'No, no, Draco, no need for that! I won't punish you and Neville for the others' absence,' Flitwick insisted, giving me a probing look over the top of his glasses.

I glared at Longbottom and he shrank away from me, looking terrified. Usually that would amuse me, but I was too busy sulking, feeling like a mug for turning up to class when no one else had bothered.

As I flipped through my Charms textbook mutinously, my mind trailed to Carlos. I had been trying not to think about him as anything other than part of the work I was doing for the Dark Lord, but occasionally I couldn't help picturing his smile and wishing I could be on the receiving end of it just once more ...

_** Carlos's POV **_

Draco Malfoy was playing on my mind. Not like _that_ of course! I just couldn't get his words out of my head. How did he know about me being a Horcrux? He must have overheard one of us talking about it. Yet he claimed to know more ... he must have been bluffing. Still, I wondered if I should speak to Harry about it. I really didn't want to bring Draco up with Harry, though. The way he reacted before when he caught me with Draco was awful. What would he think now?

I wandered down to Harry's common room in the evening and whispered the password he'd told me to a portrait of a huge woman in an ugly pink dress. She gave me a very severe look, knowing I didn't belong in that common room, but nevertheless swung open for me reluctantly.

I peered inside, not wanting to alarm any Gryffindors who knew I shouldn't be there. Very few people were about, but I recognised the back of Harry's head as he chatted to another guy with a round face and brown hair. Harry turned at the sound of the portrait clicking closed and his face lit up.

'Hi, I was hoping you'd come by!' he exclaimed, throwing his arms around me. I hugged him tightly. The boy who had been talking to Harry looked slightly taken aback for a second, but smiled politely at me.

'Come on, let's go somewhere and talk,' Harry suggested, raising his eyebrows at me suggestively. 'Oh, this is Neville by the way. Neville, this is Carlos.'

The boy mumbled hello to me and we shook hands. He was quite short and heavy-set, but his eyes sparkled with energy and his warm smile was infectious. As Harry led me away, I couldn't help doing a double take at Neville, who looked a little flustered and went quite red. I chuckled to myself. _He's shy. That's cute._

'Harry ... I have to tell you something.'

We were sitting in our favourite dark corner of the library, pretending to be studying but really snatching kisses whenever the librarian wasn't looking.

'Oh?' Harry looked very wary – hardly surprising considering what I told him the last time I said that.

'I think Draco Malfoy knows I'm a Horcrux.'

_** Ron's POV **_

Hermione didn't come to breakfast the next morning. Feeling really guilty, I headed back to our dormitory to wake her up. But she was already out of bed and dressed, poring over a pile of textbooks as usual. I sat down next to her and noticed she looked very pale and had huge dark circles under her eyes.

'Hermione ...' I hesitated. She didn't even look up. 'You would tell me if something was wrong, wouldn't you?'

'Nothing's wrong!' she said slightly too shrilly. She gathered up her books and jumped up. 'Ron, I really need to go and help Harry with his research. See you later.'

She left without even kissing me.

Hermione didn't turn up for dinner that night, either.

'She's already eaten,' Harry told me through a mouthful of chicken pie. 'She was leaving the Great Hall when I arrived, she practically knocked me over on her way out!'

'Oh right,' I mumbled. What the hell was up with her these days?

'Is Hermione okay?' Harry asked me. 'She's been a bit funny lately and she's not looking very well. Has she got a cold?'

'Dunno. I never see her for more than five minutes, I've no idea what's up with her. She's been spending ages working on this Carlos thing with you.'

'Not for the last few days, she hasn't,' Harry murmured, not looking up from his dinner.

'What? She told me that's what she's been doing!' I said angrily.

Harry shrugged, not looking terribly bothered. 'You know what she's like.'

'I thought I did,' I muttered.

I trudged out of the Great Hall, not quite knowing what to do with myself. I wanted to find Hermione but I had no idea where she was spending all her time if it wasn't with Harry and Carlos.

'Hello, Ronald,' came a familiar, rather vague-sounding voice.

'Hi Luna,' I said, my heart lifting at the sight of a friendly face. What with Harry's new relationship with Carlos and Hermione acting strangely, I was suddenly lacking in the friend department.

'You look a bit depressed. Do you want to go for a walk and have a chat?' she asked me, and I nodded gratefully.

_** Harry's POV **_

A couple of days later Carlos and I were chatting on our way out of Charms. Professor Flitwick had just given the whole class an enormous pile of homework to do, although for some reason he said Neville and Malfoy didn't have to do it. How odd …

'Oh, by the way, is Hermione feeling a bit better now?' Carlos enquired as we made our way to Transfiguration.

'Better than what?' I replied absently.

'She was pretty sick the other day, she looked terrible. I think she'd been throwing up. She insisted she was fine, though.'

'That's weird ... Ron says she's been acting funny too, really snippy and won't tell him what's wrong.'

'Maybe she'd talk to you.'

I shrugged doubtfully. 'Maybe. I'll have word with her later. But we have more important things to worry about just now.' I lowered my voice, narrowing my eyes at the sight of a blonde head farther ahead of us in the corridor. 'What are we going to do about Malfoy?'

_** Draco's POV **_

Oh, jeez. The golden boy and his Spanish-Horcrux-of-a-boyfriend were sauntering down the hall towards me, hand in hand. I was surprised they could see where they were going from the amount of time they spent staring at each other. Still, I was looking forward to messing with them.

'Alright, boys?' I said loudly. Harry glared at me. Carlos, ever the polite little Horcrux, gave me a tight smile.

'What do you want, _Malfoy_?' Potter said in his characteristic derisive tone.

'Just wondering how things are going with my favourite couple!'

'It's going brilliantly, thanks Draco,' Carlos replied and Harry nodded in agreement.

'Good, good … no skeletons falling out of dark closets, then, nothing like that?'

'Oh – like Carlos being a Horcrux, you mean?' Potter asked me sweetly, and I nearly fell over.

'You – you know about that?' I stammered. _Damn_. How on earth could they still be acting like a pukingly-sweet couple after that revelation!

'Yes, I know about it. The question is, how the hell do you know, Malfoy?'

'I hear things … you know …' I muttered.

'Yeah, I bet you do,' Carlos said darkly, his expression full of venom. 'And we don't have to think too hard to figure out what kind of people you'd hear something like that from.'

'What exactly are you accusing me of, Santiero?' I said importantly, drawing myself up to my full height.

'Oh, I think you know, Malfoy,' said Potter. 'And you can report back to your "friends" that your little plan isn't going to work.'

'Plan? What plan?' _Double damn._

'We're going to find a way to undo Voldemort's spell and keep Carlos alive,' Harry informed me. I opened my mouth to tell them that was impossible, when Carlos interrupted me.

'And if that doesn't work, then we'll do whatever it takes to get rid of the last Horcrux, even if it means getting rid of me with it.' Carlos looked at me steadily and I shivered. _He was so brave_.

I looked to Potter. He nodded. 'Whatever it takes.'

'Whatever. I don't know what you're even talking about.' I pushed past the pair of them and stalked back to my common room, absolutely fuming.

_That damn Potter! Why does he have to be so bloody noble and self-sacrificing? Or in this case, friend-sacrificing_. I grinned to myself wickedly for a second at my own wit, before another surge of anger and frustration hit me. Snape was definitely going to kill me. In fact, I really hoped he would. It would save me from whatever punishment the Dark Lord would concoct for me ...

But to be honest, there was something concerning me more than any punishment I might receive for my failure to stop Harry destroying the final Horcrux. And that was the fact that Carlos was probably going to die.

_** Hermione's POV **_

As I counted back the dates on my calendar, I shook my head, dazedly. Merlin's beard. How on earth had I not noticed I'd missed two periods? Bloody hell. What was I going to do!

My thoughts were interrupted by a sudden rush to the bathroom. Right on cue at exactly eight forty-five, my morning sickness had kicked in.

I didn't even hear the knock on the dormitory door, or notice anyone coming in until Harry appeared directly I front of me as I emerged from the bathroom.

'Merlin! You gave me a fright!' I cried angrily. 'What are you doing here?'

'I just came to talk. You've been acting really weirdly, Hermione, and you won't talk to anyone about it.'

'That's because there's nothing to talk about,' I said through a clenched jaw.

'Yeah right. You look terrible. Have you even eaten yet?'

I sighed, fighting off another wave of nausea and dizziness at the mention of food. 'Harry, can you just drop it please, I'm not feeling well.'

'Exactly, that's another thing. We've all noticed you've not been well. Have you been to see Madam Pomfrey?' Harry demanded.

'No, I'm fine.'

Suddenly my vision went blurry. I felt myself falling ... falling ... falling ... and then I opened my eyes to find I had toppled into Harry's arms. He laid me down on the sofa and looked down at me with a mixture of exasperation and concern.

'_Now_ will you admit you're not well?'

'Harry, just leave it, will you?'

'Hermione, something's wrong with you and you need to go to the hospital wing!' Harry exclaimed

'I'm fine!' I insisted weakly, wishing he would just leave me alone before I said something I'd regret. The truth was on the tip of my tongue, bursting to get out of me.

'You're not fine! It's not normal, puking all morning and feeling faint all the time, you need to –' Realisation dawned on Harry's face and I hung my head, blushing. 'Wait a moment ... Hermione, are you – are you – _pregnant_!'

I couldn't hold it in any longer. 'Yes.'

'Does Ron know?'

I shook my head, sitting up.

'Why on earth not? How long have you known? How far along are you?'

'I'm exactly ten weeks pregnant, Harry,' I told him, screwing up my face in anticipation of his angry explosion. 'That's why I haven't told Ron.'

Blankness.

'Ten weeks,' I repeated emphatically, raising my eyebrows at him.

Even blankerness.

'Where were you ten weeks ago, Harry?'

I could see the cogs turning oh-so-painfully slowly in his head. He began counting on his fingers, muttering 'September the second ... August the twenty-sixth ... nineteenth ... July ...'

'The week before my wedding!' I hissed, losing my patience.

'Er ... oh, yeah! Er, I was in Israel, with Ron and Charlie ... we found that Horcrux, it was great! You stayed at The Burrow and ... oh.' The grin slid off his face. 'How can you be ten weeks pregnant, Hermione? That's impossible!'

'I assure you, it's quite possible.'

'But Ron was in Israel and you were at The Burrow, you couldn't have got pregnant then!'

'I assure you, I did.'

Harry looked very confused. Then a cheeky smile appeared on his face. 'Ron, the sly old dog,' he muttered softly in approval. 'He never told me he Apparated back home for some action while we were away!'

'He didn't, Harry,' I replied testily. 'In fact, Ron and I never slept together until our wedding night.'

'So then ...' _Finally_ the expression I'd been waiting for crossed his face. 'Hermione! _Ron's not the father!_'

And now all my impatience melted away and I remembered how ashamed I'd been feeling.

'No, Harry, Ron's not the father.'

_Now_ Harry looked angry. 'So who the hell is it then!'


	4. Ron's Secret

_** Harry's POV **_

'I – I don't think I can tell you,' Hermione said, not meeting my gaze.

'You can't tell me,' I repeated dumbly, the anger stirring in my chest having not quite reached my lips yet.

'Not yet,' she whispered.

I was furious. Fifteen different questions were fighting to get out of my mouth first.

'Why – when – who – what the hell are you playing at, Hermione? Is this some kind of _joke_?'

'No.'

'The week before your wedding you slept with someone?'

'Yes.'

'At your fiancé's _parents'_ house!'

Silence this time. My mind was in overdrive.

'Wait, if you only slept with this person a week before you slept with Ron, how do you know for sure when you got pregnant? It could still be Ron's!' I exclaimed happily, desperate for a solution to this horrid situation, even though the paternity of Hermione's baby could not allay the fact that she had cheated. It certainly would help things, though.

'It's definitely not Ron's, I'm sure.'

'How can you know that?' I persisted. She had to be wrong. 'I mean, you haven't even seen Madam Pomfrey yet!'

'I've taken a test.'

'So? Pregnancy tests don't tell you the exact date,' I scoffed.

'You're thinking of Muggle pregnancy tests. Magical ones tell you practically anything. The date, the time of conception, even who the father is. The expensive ones can actually show you what the child will look like.'

'But I – _really?_' I was fascinated for a second. I'd never known anyone in the Wizarding world who was pregnant before: I'd never realised how different magic would make the whole process. Then, suddenly remembering the gravity of what we were discussing, I shook that thought out of my head.

'Anyway, that's beside the point …' I hesitated again. 'You can really see what it'll look like?'

Hermione looked exasperated. 'I didn't use one of those ones!' she hissed at me.

I shook my head again to clear it. 'Merlin … how could you _do_ something like this, Hermione?'

Hermione looked mournful and didn't answer for a moment. 'Please don't tell Ron,' she pleaded tearfully.

'Are _you_ going to tell him, then?'

'Well, I think he'll notice in a few months when my belly becomes enormous,' she said dryly.

'I'm sure you wouldn't be the first witch in history to hide her pregnancy with a Disillusionment Charm,' I retorted, equally dryly. The possibilities magic made available during pregnancy were just occurring to me.

'I wouldn't do that,' Hermione said in a hurt tone.

I snorted. 'Sure. Anyway, I meant the other part. Whose it is.'

'Of course I'll tell him. I just need some time.'

I rolled my eyes, annoyed. 'Just what Ron needs. More time with you acting all weird and distant, disappearing for hours at a time. He's hardly seeing you as it is!'

'Yeah, like you can talk,' she muttered mutinously.

'What's that supposed to mean?' I retorted, bristling.

'Ever since you and Carlos got together you've been practically ignoring Ron!'

'I have not!' How dare she accuse me of being a bad friend to Ron after whatshe'd done to him! 'And you've been worse – you're his wife and he hardly sees you these days! You know, I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up sleeping with someone else too, after the way you've been treating him!'

I almost regretted saying that when I saw the hurt in her eyes. Almost. But not quite.

'Yeah right,' she muttered dismissively.

I exploded. 'What – are you saying no other girl would go near Ron? He's a great guy, he could get any girl he wanted, you know!'

Hermione eyes went wide with shock at my outburst, but I had no sympathy for her.

'Harry, of course I'm not saying that! That's horrid!'

'Well I wouldn't put it past you,' I said huffily.

'God, Harry, you're twisting everything! I haven't turned into some evil cow overnight! I'm still me!'

'Yeah? Well, the Hermione I knew would never have done something like this to Ron!'

_Oh my god. She's not really Hermione._

_** Draco's POV **_

Once again, I seemed to be about the only person who'd bothered to turn up to class. Only this time it was Defence Against the Dark Arts, and that was most peoples' favourite – they never skived off it.

Even Longbottom wasn't here. The only Gryffindors that were there were that Patil girl and her giggly friend, along with a small assortment of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs.

Professor Lovegood's eyes swept across his half-empty classroom and he raised his eyebrows but said nothing.

It's ridiculous, really, that they've appointed old Lovegood a teacher here. I hadn't thought anyone could make worse choices than Dumbledore, but McGonagall has really hit rock bottom with this one. I mean, come on, the former editor of a trashy newspaper teaching us how to defend ourselves against enemies? How on earth can he be qualified?

Just as Lovegood stood up to begin the lesson, the classroom door opened again and Carlos walked in. To my surprise, he took a seat right next to me, though he didn't speak to me or even look at me. Lovegood did not say a word to Carlos about his lateness, but merely nodded at him. Typical. I got pulled to pieces by him last week for arriving sixty seconds past nine o'clock, but does the precious Horcrux? Nooooo.

'Bit late, aren't you?' I said snidely to Carlos behind my textbook so Lovegood wouldn't notice.

For a few seconds I really thought he was pretending not to hear me, until he gave a small sigh and looked right into my eyes.

'What do you want, Draco?'

Thrown for a moment, I cast around for something to say. But those deep brown eyes always made my mind go to mush.

'Just … wondering how things are going with you …' _Oh god, why did I say that?. Not good. Not good at all, Draco._

Carlos gave me a look I couldn't read and then, to my utter shock, a small smile. 'Not bad, considering the circumstances. Thanks for asking.'

I goggled at him.

'And how are you, Draco?'

Was he for real? Why on earth would he be civil to me after what he suspected (and quite rightly, too) I had been plotting?

Aha. Maybe it was a trick: he was trying to lure me into confiding in him by being nice to me. He obviously knew I had a bit of a thing for him and thought he'd prey on that weakness. Well, two could play at this game …

'I'm okay, thanks, Carlos, but I feel bad that we've not seen much of each other lately.'

'Me too. Fancy taking a walk after class?'

'Sure.'

I smirked to myself. _Excellent._

_** Luna's POV **_

I couldn't quite put my finger on it … there had been a weird energy within the school the past few weeks. Everybody I knew was acting strangely, everybody seemed to have secrets. But nobody was telling me any of them.

Nobody except _him_, that is.

' … just been so distant ever since the wedding … I thought this was what she wanted … she said with the way things were she couldn't be with me without a serious commitment … don't understand what's wrong with her …'

We strolled along beside the lake, despite the fact Ron should have been in Defence Against the Dark Arts and I was missing a Divination class. I listened to him ramble on, getting it all off his chest, and watched the tension ease out of him with every sentence. It was the third time this week we'd had one of our little chats. They'd started last year: every now and then when things got too much for one of us, we'd somehow gravitate towards each other to talk about our worries. Actually, to be honest, half the time we didn't even talk about the serious stuff – just joked and laughed around our problems without really discussing them, until it eased the burden a little.

' … she's been ill, too, says it's nothing, though … no one else seems very worried … Harry's too busy with his _boyfriend_ … honestly, it's like I'm invisible these days …'

I remember our first proper chat as though it was this morning, although it was more like a year ago. Ron had been nervous about his first Quidditch match of the year … I'm not really sure why, actually. Quidditch isn't really very important, is it? And anyway, Ron had nothing to worry about because he's a very good Keeper – not as good as our Ravenclaw one, of course, but still very good. Anyway, his friends had been too busy to listen to him, as usual, and we'd bumped into each other in the library. I had sat down at the table next to his in the hope of finally getting to know the boy with the flaming hair that had intrigued me for many months.

At first he hadn't been very talkative, even going as far as pretending to study so he didn't have to speak to me. But when I'd pointed out that his Charms textbook was upside down, and that unless he was looking for the rumoured hidden code in Chapter Fourteen he must be having some trouble revising like that, he had grinned at me and said, 'Okay, Luna, you caught me. Now what's up?'

Three hours later I had realised we'd been talking for … well, three hours. Ron hadn't noticed the time, either – not till Hermione had come in looking for him anyway. He'd rushed off with her, barely giving me a second look. I'd tried not to let it bother me. I was still trying.

'… wish I could help her … runs off whenever I ask what's wrong … what am I supposed to do to make her talk to me? Luna? _Luna? /i?_'

_** Hermione's POV **_

Harry was backing away from me, his eyes wide with alarm, his right hand patting down his robes as though he was searching for something. _ His wand._

'Harry – what?' I exclaimed. He looked positively manic. He bumped into the wall and finally managed to produce his wand from within his robes.

'What are you doing?' I said nervously.

Harry's face was pale, and the hand holding out his wand was shaking badly. 'You're not Hermione! You're not my friend! She would never do something like this!'

'What on earth are you talking about, Harry?'

'You're a Death Eater in disguise! Aren't you? Or at least being controlled by one! What is it then? The Imperius Curse? Polyjuice Potion?'

_Oh my god. He's lost it._

'Harry, it's me! I swear it is!'

'No way! You can't be!'

'I'll prove it to you!' I cried, tears prickling at my eyes.

'How? A Death Eater trick?' he snarled.

Tears started streaming down my cheeks. 'Ask me anything, Harry! Ask me how happy Ron was when he got on the Quidditch team … ask me what happened when we all went through the trapdoor to save the Philosopher's stone … ask me what my face looked like when you told me Dumbledore was dead .. ask me anything, Harry … anything …' I broke down, sobbing, sinking to me knees.

Harry's wand wavered, drooped, then fell to the ground. The next thing I knew he was beside me on the floor, holding me tightly.

'I'm sorry, Harry!' I wailed. 'I know what I've done to Ron is awful! But I need you, I can't get through this without you! You're my best – my best –'

'I know, I know,' he said soothingly, stroking my hair.

_** Carlos's POV **_

As Professor Lovegood's lesson drew to a close I shot a sideways glance at Draco and saw his cheeks turn faintly red as he noticed me looking at him.

'Shall we go?' I suggested.

Turning slightly pinker, Draco nodded and fumbled his books into his bag.

Five minutes later we were hugging our robes around us as we walked briskly along the edge of a lake. I tried to think of something to say. I wanted to talk to Draco alone, without Harry around to antagonise him. I wanted to find out how serious he was about being a Death Eater and doing You-Know-Who's bidding. I wanted to find out how serious his feelings were for me, and how I could use them to my advantage …

'Must be colder than you're used to here,' Draco said eventually after several minutes of silence.

'Yeah, freezing,' I said with a shiver.

'Listen –' we both started at the same time. We laughed.

'Look, Draco, I know there are a million things that should stop us being friends.'

Draco snorted. 'You're telling me,' he muttered.

'But I'm sure there are ways we can work around it.'

'Work around the fact that I work for the Dark Lord?'

I gaped. I couldn't believe he was admitting it.

His cheeks reddened. 'Dammit. But I can't lie to you, Carlos. There's something about you … the truth just flies out my mouth.'

I didn't know quite what to say. I had expected him to put up much more of a fight.

'Well … okay. Now the question is, can we do anything about that?'

'Our Dads were both Death Eaters, and I ended up going down that path. How did you end up so different?'

'Well, I never even knew my Dad, and I've always hated what happened to me because of him. That helped.'

Draco nodded. 'I wish my Dad was dead. Then I'd never have got into this stuff,' he said bitterly.

'Do you really want to get out of it?' I asked.

He was quiet for a very long time. 'I wish I knew for sure, but I really don't have a clue what I want.'

For a while, a couple had been ambling along in front of us, and we were gradually catching them up.

'Hey isn't that Ron Weasley up ahead?' I asked. I would recognise his bright red hair a mile off. But he was with a blonde girl I didn't recognise, and they were standing rather close together. 'Who's that he's with?'

I quickened my pace slightly to catch up with them, but Draco held out his arm to slow me down.

'It's that deranged Lovegood girl – you know – the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher's daughter.'

I squinted at them. She was gazing up at him as he talked, then he laughed loudly at something she said and brushed her arm lightly with his hand. I stared at them hard. Ron would never cheat on Hermione … would he?

'Well, well, well, the Weasel and the Weirdo. What _will_ the Mudblood have to say about this?'

I gave Draco a very dirty look.

_** Ron's POV **_

'Luna, are you listening to me?'

'Hmm?'

A dreamy expression on Luna's face wasn't unusual … but for her not to pay attention to me was rather odd. Usually her big eyes stayed focused on my face, lapping up every word. It would be rather unnerving, actually, if I wasn't so grateful to have someone giving me undivided attention. No one else I'd ever known did that for me, they had too many other things going on. Harry had one trauma after another, Hermione was constantly preoccupied with school work, my parents had to split their time between seven children and as for my siblings, well, they had the attention spans of gnats.

Luna was different. When she listened, she really listened. She didn't nod absently or say what she thought were the right things. She just gazed at me, drinking in my words.

'I'm sorry, Ron, I really am listening,' she told me earnestly, the corners of her mouth pulling upwards into a vaguely lopsided smile. I don't remember when I first noticed that her smile was lopsided. But I do remember when I noticed it was only when she smiled at me that it was lopsided.

'So anyway, it's getting easier to be around Harry now that I'm getting used to him being … well, you know,' I continued, and she stared at me sincerely. 'But I don't know if things will ever get back to normal …'

I carried on talking, knowing my words would go no further and that they would never be judged or ridiculed.

I'm not sure why I never told Hermione about the little chats Luna and I had. I told myself it wasn't a secret, that I would tell her it if it was ever relevant to the conversation. I told myself it was just not a big deal, that our chats were few and far between and weren't worth mentioning.

I told myself that there was no way Luna's feelings for me went beyond friendship. But I knew I was lying to myself.

And as Hermione drifted further and further away from me, I wondered whether it was possible that I felt more for Luna, too.


	5. Luna's Secret

_** Carlos **_

I was sitting with Harry and his friends in the Gryffindor common room on a lazy Saturday morning. Hermione was stretched out on a sofa reading a book, her head resting on Ron's lap as he played with her hair. Ron's little sister Ginny sat cross-legged on the floor, leaning against an armchair, her head resting next to Neville Longbottom's legs. Neville himself looked extremely nervous about something and kept squirming in his seat. His gaze was shifting all over the place and he seemed to jump any time anyone spoke to him.

Ron gave an enormous sigh, checked his watch and announced, 'Time for Quidditch practice.'

Harry, who was sitting very close beside me in an armchair, gave Ron a very wistful look. Harry had very magnanimously decided at the beginning of seventh year to give up his place on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, along with the captaincy. He knew he would be too busy to give it enough attention this year. But that didn't stop his missing it.

Ron, the current captain, stood up and stretched. Ginny jumped to her feet in one fluid movement and the pair waved to us as they headed out of the portrait hole.

'I think I'll go with them,' I said spontaneously, getting up from the chair so quickly that Harry was nearly tipped onto the floor.

'You're going to watch Gryffindor's Quidditch practice?' Harry repeated incredulously. I thought I sensed a little hurt in his eyes, as though he couldn't believe I'd choose to watch them train over spending time with him.

'Yeah!' I tried to look enthusiastic. The truth was, I hated Quidditch. But I was on a mission. If something was going on with Ron and that Luna girl, I had to find out. And the only way to do that was to spend more time with Ron. I knew Harry found it painful to watch Quidditch when he couldn't play himself, so he'd never follow me. This was my perfect chance to get Ron alone.

'I think I'll go and get some more books from my room,' Hermione said, drifting away from our seats by the fire. Neville got up too, mumbling something incoherent, and disappeared. He's a little strange, that guy.

'Carlos, is everything okay?' Harry asked me once we were alone.

'What do you mean?' I responded, genuinely surprised.

'It's just lately … the last few days … you've been spending less time with me and more time with … with …'

'With?' I prompted. I had a horrible feeling I knew what was coming, and I really didn't want to have to lie my way out of it. Merlin, I hate to lie. Especially to my Harry.

'With Ron. Not that it bothers me or anything,' Harry added quickly. 'I'm just confused … you don't know him that well or have much in common with him. Why are you suddenly being so friendly? Or am I just being stupid?'

'No, Harry, of course not!' I exclaimed. 'But you're sort of right.'

He looked up at me warily.

'I _have_ been making an effort to spend time with Ron.' I swallowed hard, preparing myself for the lie. 'He's your best friend, Harry. I feel like I should get to know him better.'

'Oh.' Harry looked a lot brighter all of a sudden. Then his face fell slightly. 'Well, what about Hermione? She's my best friend too.'

'I already know Hermione quite well. We already see a lot of each other because of the research she's been doing for me,' I pointed out, quite truthfully.

Harry smiled and looked embarrassed. 'You're right. I'm so sorry, Carlos. I don't know what I was thinking, accusing you like that!'

The look of relief on Harry's face made me feel guilty for lying to him, although not too guilty. At least I wasn't doing it to hurt him. And when I saw Hermione return to the common room, looking pale and tired, I was all the more resolute. Hermione really was a good friend of mine now, and I was determined to find out if Ron was messing her about.

**_ Hermione _**

I'd been feeling restless all morning, and I knew what the problem was. I'd never liked keeping secrets from people, it made me horribly grumpy. Right now I was keeping secrets from everybody, and I was almost starting to lose track of who knew what. Not a single soul knew everything, and I decided I needed to remedy that if I was going to hang on to my sanity.

As soon as Carlos disappeared out the portrait hole after Ron and Ginny, I returned to the seats by the fire. I hovered at Harry's shoulder wringing my hands, until he seemed to sense I was there and turned round. He raised his eyebrows at me.'

I went red and blurted out, 'It's Neville.'

'Excuse me?' Harry said, his eyes popping out of his head.

'Neville ... he's … he's …'

'The father?' Harry prompted.

I nodded shamefully.

After goggling and stuttering for about an hour, Harry said, 'How on _earth_ did you end up sleeping with Neville?'

'It was so stupid …' I began, flopping onto the sofa beside him. 'He was upset because he had just asked Ginny out and she had turned him down and –'

'Wait – Neville asked Ginny out? Neville likes Ginny?' Harry interrupted.

'Harry.' I sighed and rolled my eyes impatiently. 'Neville has been in love with Ginny for as long as Ginny has been in love with you.'

Harry looked confused as he tried to work that one out. 'Gosh! I had no idea!'

'Well, I knew. Anyway, so Neville was heartbroken over Ginny and I was panicking about my wedding and there was a bottle of Firewhisky and, well, the rest is rather a blur, I'm afraid.' I looked at Harry defiantly, silently challenging him to criticise me.

He simply looked stunned. 'Merlin's goatee. Does Neville know that you're ... ?'

'Are you mad? Of course not! And he's not to find out, either! He's finally got together with Ginny, this is the last thing he needs!'

'WHAT!' Harry exploded.

'Well, she only turned Neville down the first time because she was waiting for you. Now that she knows you two will never get back together, she's taking a chance on Neville!'

'But – how did – when – why –'

'Now don't go all jealous-ex-boyfriend, Harry,' I said warningly. 'Even if you weren't gay, you'd have no right to complain about Ginny seeing someone. You made your choice.'

'I am _not_ jealous!' Harry cried. 'I just can't believe she would go out with _Neville_!'

'What, after you, you mean? Think Neville's not quite in your league?' I scoffed acidly.

'No.' But Harry turned red. He so _did_ think that.

'You're unbelievable,' I muttered.

'Don't start, Hermione,' he muttered back.

We glared at each other and both walked off in opposite directions.

**_ Draco _**

On Saturday, just like every morning, I apparated to Snape's hideout. He greeted me with his standard lip curl and lazily motioned me inside, giving the outside world a glare as he scanned for spies.

'Well? Is there even any point in asking if you have made any new progress?' he asked disdainfully.

I can't remember exactly when I stopped showing Snape the respect I bestowed on him when he was my teacher. Somewhere in between him going into hiding and me becoming the Dark Lord's new favourite spy, the tables had begun to turn.

'More than you have, stuck hiding in this pathetic excuse for a house,' I replied scathingly. 'I'm back in Santiero's good books again. He thinks he's helping me with my inner turmoil.' I gave a snigger, but Snape stonily refused to join in.

'I see,' he said simply, his lips thin.

'Has the Dark Lord issued any new orders for me?' I asked.

'Not as such. You are to continue with the charade of friendship with Santiero in order to keep tabs on what Potter is planning, and to ensure that the two stay together. Other than that, the Dark Lord is satisfied with your success. You have done as he asked and made certain Potter will never destroy the final Horcrux.' Snape gave a slight eye-roll, clearly resenting me for pleasing the Dark Lord far more than he had recently. Normally I would have basked in his envy, but unfortunately …

'Well, see, that's the thing …' I faltered, losing my cocky stance. 'There is a slight problem there.'

'Oh?' said Snape, his glee clearly showing, lighting up his pasty face.

'See, Potter kind of … er … he-said-he'd-kill-Carlos-if-he-had-to.'

I said that last part so fast that I didn't think Snape would have heard it. I hoped he wouldn't. And in case he did, I was ready to make a run for it. Or to make an Apparate for it. Whichever.

'Oh dear me, Draco,' Snape said softly, in his scariest voice. 'What will the Dark Lord say?'

_** Neville **_

I couldn't believe the day had finally come. Okay, so I'd only been waiting for it for two days. But they were the longest two days of my life.

Ginny Weasley had finally agreed to go out with me. Our first date was tonight. All right, so it wasn't much of a date. Sneaking food out of the kitchens and taking it for a picnic in the Hogwarts grounds in the freezing cold was hardly the stuff of great romance … but it was the best we could hope for while we were stuck at school and with You-Know-Who out still there. Well, Ginny seemed happy enough with the plan. Maybe not as happy as she'd been with …

I tried not to let myself think about that. I had to pretend I was the first guy she had ever gone out with in order to preserve my sanity. The thought of her with those other guys … with two of best friends, no less … nope, couldn't even stomach it.

Through the hubbub of the common room, a familiar sound reached my ears. A sparkling giggle, a pretty laugh which sent a wave of warmth through my body.

I looked up. There she was. Chatting with her Quidditch team mates as she came in through the portrait hole on the other side of the room, her hair glittering as it caught the light any time she moved. I watched her, transfixed. She was caked in mud from head to toe after Quidditch practice, but I still couldn't take my eyes off her. All I could think about was that tonight I might get to kiss her for the first time. I prayed for her to look over at me and flash me that beautiful smile, but at the same time I was terrified of her noticing me, desperate to remain invisible.

She looked up. She saw me. She smiled.

My palms suddenly got sweaty, my throat scratchy, and I felt like I might throw up at any moment. The same way she always made me feel.

And that was just when she was across the room from me.

When she was close enough to touch, my head felt like it was inside out and my heart felt like it might hammer its way right out of my chest.

How the hell was I ever going to kiss her tonight?

_** Harry **_

Jealous. Pah. How dare she? Ginny and I were just friends now. Well okay, so she hadn't actually spoken to me in months … but the very idea that I didn't want her seeing anyone else … ridiculous!

And as for the notion that I didn't think Neville was good enough for her, well that was even more silly. Neville was lovely. Not my type, of course … I gave an involuntary little shudder at the thought.

Well, good for them. Except there was the small matter of Neville fathering someone else's child.

_Neville and Hermione_. I still couldn't picture it. Not that I wanted to, of course. Yuck. But really, I mean, who would ever have imagined something going on between them?

Jealous. _Jealous! _ I still couldn't believe it. If I was going to be jealous of anyone it would be Carlos and Ron. Not that I thought there was anything going on … but something about his explanation, or maybe just his tone of voice or something, just didn't quite add up.

My heavy contemplation was interrupted by a knock on my dormitory door. Sighing, I heaved myself up from my bed and opened the door to Ron.

'You don't have to knock, Ron!' I exclaimed. 'This used to be your room, too!'

He shrugged. 'I suppose. Feels weird not being in here anymore.' He looked a bit fed up. 'Well anyway, now that Quidditch practice is over Hermione wants us all to have a meeting in the library about all the Horcrux stuff.'

'Really?' I exclaimed, forgetting for a moment that I was angry with her. 'She must have found something!'

Ron grinned at me. 'She must have!'

My heart thudding with excitement, I led our way downstairs and tore through the corridors to the library with Ron close on my heels.

**_ Ron _**

As usual, the first thing I said to Hermione as we entered the library was, 'You look tired, honey, are you okay?'

She nodded, letting me kiss her on the cheek. She didn't look half as excited as I'd have expected if she had good news. I glanced at Harry nervously. He hadn't seemed to notice this, and was grinning like a maniac as he took a seat. Carlos was already there, sitting beside Hermione and looking quite serene.

'So?' Harry said eagerly to Hermione. 'What have you got to tell us, Hermione? You've found something, haven't you?'

'Harry. It's not good news.'

Harry's face fell. Carlos didn't look phased. Hermione had obviously told him whatever the news was while I went to get Harry. Hermione herself looked close to tears.

'I've been through everything I can get my hands on. Every book in the library, every piece of information I could cadge from Lovegood's office. I've talked to anyone I can that knows about Horcruxes. There is nothing anywhere about how to do this.'

'But – but – there must be something else we can try,' Harry protested. 'I mean, there are billions of books in the world, just because there was nothing in the books at Hogwarts doesn't mean there's nothing else out there!'

'Harry, the books I've been looking at are the most advanced, up-to-date, ground-breaking –'

'Okay, okay, I get the picture,' Harry cut in. 'All right, well if books are no good, what about people? Surely there are people out there who know stuff that's just not in books?'

'Well it's possible, but how do you suggest I go about finding them?' Hermione asked wearily.

'I don't know, Hermione! You're the one that's meant to come up with the ideas!'

'Oh, I am, am I?' Hermione retorted, bristling. 'Well how about you try having the ideas for once! I've been working my arse off to help you and I haven't heard a word of thanks!'

'Hermione, I really appreciate –' Carlos began guiltily.

'Not you, Carlos,' Hermione snapped, cutting him off. 'It's Harry who hasn't shown an ounce of gratitude.'

'Well, excuse me for thinking you're happy to help out your friends,' Harry said huffily.

Carlos and I glanced at each other and at Hermione and Harry. He looked as confused as I was about why the two were so angry with each other.

'Look, guys, calm down. It will all be okay,' I interrupted. 'Let's just try to remember why we're doing all this. Carlos's life is in danger here, and so are the lives of millions of people as long as You-Know-Who is in power. We need to –'

'Shh,' whispered Hermione, looking over my shoulder.

Luna had just walked into the library.

**_ Luna _**

The tight little group all turned to stare at me. Ron gave me a small smile, but the other three all looked tense and worried.

'What are you all talking about?' I asked distractedly. I really didn't care. I was just desperate for an excuse to be around Ron, so I interrupted them.

'Well …' Harry glanced around and gave a resigned sigh. He looked very glum. 'I suppose we may as well tell you. Carlos is Voldemort's last Horcrux and we want to destroy the Horcrux without killing Carlos in the process. But we've exhausted all our resources and got nowhere.'

'So … any ideas, Luna?' Hermione asked in what one might call a rather scathing tone.

'Oh ... yeah, I know how to do that, actually,' I replied distractedly. I couldn't even look at Ron while his wife was there, sitting beside him. I kept my eyes on the ground.

'Oh you do, do you?' Hermione said, raising a very incredulous eyebrow.

'Yeah, my Dad did it once.' I glanced up and realised they were all staring at me, some of them in disbelief, some in utter shock. I was a little taken aback. Was it that surprising?

Ron's chin was on the ground. 'Your _DAD_ did it?'

'Uh, yeah. He helped Dumbledore … you know … the whole Grindelwald thing?' I stared around them all, unable to believe they didn't know anything about this. 'Yeah … my Dad did all the work, but because Dumbledore just happened to cast the spell that finished Grindelwald off, it was him that got all the credit.'

'But Dumbledore would have corrected people!' Harry insisted desperately.

_Poor, poor Harry. He is so deluded._

'Harry … Dumbledore was a wonderful person, yes, but give anyone a taste of fame and they will find it hard to let it go … my Dad was happy for someone else to take the credit, he just wanted a quiet life.'

'So they came to some kind of agreement? Decided Dumbledore would take the credit because Professor Lovegood didn't want it?' Hermione stated rationally. The others nodded at her vehemently.

'Not really,' I said, surprised at their horrified faces. 'They never talked about it. Dumbledore took the credit and my Dad wasn't bothered enough to argue.'

They all looked flabbergasted. I really didn't see what the big deal was. My Dad was happy and it made no difference to the world.

'So … about _Carlos_ …?' I prompted them.

Blinking, Harry seemed to remember what the important thing was, here. 'Yes! Luna, I could kiss you!'

I felt myself blush, even though I didn't fancy Harry at all. The reason I blushed was that when Harry said it, I looked at Ron and Ron blushed, too. He blushed first, in fact.

'Well … er … I can definitely help you!' I told them happily.


	6. Neville's Secret

**_ Draco _**

'I'll give you one week, Draco,' Snape said in a business-like manner. 'After that I will have no choice but to report to the Dark Lord what you have just told me.'

'Thank you,' I replied gratefully, trying not to look too relieved. 'I'll find a way to fix this.'

'You'd better. Now get out of my sight,' Snape snarled. I backed out of his house, trying to keep a confident look on my face, and quickly Apparated back to Hogwarts.

As I made my way up to the castle, I considered my options. There really was only one.

_Carlos_. I'd have to speak to him again. I would tell him I was desperate to leave the Dark Lord's service and go over to the good side. I'd tell him I needed his help, and then start spending as much time with him as possible. Soon he would start to trust me again, he'd start confiding in me, and then I could find out anything I needed to know, and hopefully a way to get myself back into the Dark Lord's good books.

Or alternatively I could just seduce Carlos, make sure Harry found out, and then they would break up and … no wait, that wouldn't work, that would just make Harry more inclined to kill him … sure would be fun, though. On more than one count …

I snapped myself out of the fantasy. There must be something I could do to make sure that on no account would Harry destroy Carlos-The-Horcrux.

_** Harry **_

Barely giving Luna a second to catch her breath, the four of us marched her through countless corridors and down two flights of stairs to her father's office on the second floor. Bursting through the Professor's door, five students practically fell over the threshold and cried, 'Professor, we need you help!'

Professor Lovegood jumped, and stared at the tangled group of us in alarm. His eyes fell on Luna and for a second I think he might have thought we'd taken her hostage: all four of us were gripping her arms. I pushed her forwards.

'Luna? What's going on?' Professor Lovegood asked worriedly, eyeing the rest of us very warily.

'Dad, Harry needs your help,' Luna said earnestly to her father.

Professor Lovegood motioned us all inside his office and conjured chairs for us at his desk. We squeezed into seats, and I opened my mouth to begin the story. Carlos beat me to it. I was taken aback: he was usually very reserved and quiet. Suddenly the whole story was spilling out of his lips, even some details he hadn't even told me!

'So you see, Professor, as long as I'm alive, You-Know-Who can't be killed. So I need your help,' Carlos finished breathlessly. We all stared at Lovegood expectantly.

'I'm a little confused. What is it you think I can do to help?' the old Professor asked.

'Well, Professor …' Hermione started, looking perplexed. 'Luna told us you knew how to destroy a Horcrux without killing the person it's in. Don't you?'

Professor Lovegood sat back in his chair and sighed thoughtfully. 'I've done it once before. That doesn't mean I'll be able to do it this time,' he said, carefully.

'Oh,' said Carlos, Ron, Hermione and I in disappointed unison.

'Dad!' Luna exclaimed in the most angry tone I'd ever heard her use, which was still not very angry at all, actually. 'You must be able to help them!'

Professor Lovegood looked surprised: he had obviously rarely heard his daughter raise her voice above a dreamy whisper, either.

'Please, Professor Lovegood,' Hermione added, in her swottiest voice, with her most studious expression plastered on. I had never noticed what a good actress she was. _Well, I suppose she must be, to be hiding so much from everyone._ I stopped that train of thought quickly. I might have been furious with Hermione, but there were more important things at hand.

'All right. I'm not saying I can't help,' Lovegood told us, leaning forward again and clasping his hands. 'I'm just warning you not to get your hopes up. It's not a one-fits-all solution. I can't just wave my wand and fix it all. It will take time … planning … even sacrifice.'

Carlos and I shared a small glance. It seemed to communicate a world of emotion. _Whatever it takes_. It was becoming our mantra.

At the same time I noticed Ron and Hermione squeezing each other's hands, and I felt a surge of bittersweet emotion for my two best friends … even when things were bad between them, they still drew comfort from each other. That was love.

But Luna was staring forlornly into the distance, but I couldn't help noticing her giving Ron and Hermione a longing look. _Poor thing_. In all the time I'd known her, she'd never had a boyfriend, and she was clearly envious of the rest of us. After all, Ron and Hermione had each other, I had Carlos and now Neville had Ginny. We were all paired up apart from Luna. _Poor girl_.

'We'll try anything,' Carlos told Lovegood, speaking up for all of us.

**_ Ginny _**

With once last cursory glance in the mirror, I sighed and headed out of my dormitory. I had hummed and hawed over one of my roommates' make up bags for an hour, and still ended up heading out bare-faced. I never was one for acting like a girl.

A very shaky, clammy, red-faced boy was waiting for me at the bottom of the girls' stairs. I smiled at him. I _think_ he tried to smile back, but it looked more like a grimace.

'Ready to go?' I asked Neville. He made a slight screechy sound that I took as a yes. I suppressed a sigh. This was going to be a long night if I had to hold up both ends of the conversation.

So we headed out into the Hogwarts grounds. The moment we stepped out of the front doors, the wind whipped at my face and sent a chill right through me. I glanced at Neville uncertainly, wondering how on earth we were going to stay outside more than ten minutes without getting frostbite.

'Don't worry,' Neville told me shyly. 'I have a few tricks up my sleeve. Trust me, you won't feel the cold in a few minutes.'

Slightly dubious, I followed him outside, bowing my head against the wind and clutching my faithful old cloak around me.

'This way!' Neville called. He was barely a step ahead of me, but the wind almost drowned him out.

I followed him through the grounds to the edge of the lake, where he stopped under a large, sweeping sycamore tree and set down the little basket he'd been carrying. Out of it he pulled a small blanket and spread it on the ground. _Is he kidding?_ The tree provided a little shelter, but it was still freezing cold. Surely this wasn't his plan?

'Sit,' Neville instructed me.

I raised my eyebrows at him.

'I mean, if you want to,' he stammered.

'Okay, okay,' I said with a little laugh and plopped myself down onto the ground. Even through the blanket I could feel the cold, damp grass.

Neville sat down awkwardly next to me and pulled out his wand. Staring at a little piece of parchment that he pulled out of his pocket, Neville gave a little flick of his wand and in a muttered tone he recited something incomprehensible.

Immediately, the wind was silenced. After the shock of that wore off, I realised that in addition to the quiet, I could no longer feel the cold. It was now pleasantly warm, as though we were in a little bubble heated by an invisible fireplace.

'How did you do that?' I breathed, enthralled.

Neville beamed. 'Hermione showed me how to do it,' he confided.

From his little basket, Neville proceeded to pull an assortment of yummy looking goodies and bottles of butterbeer.

'Sorry, I, er, wasn't sure what you liked so I just brought some of everything.' He gave me another of his excruciatingly shy grins and I took a chicken sandwich from him.

Well, I can't say the date went _completely_ smoothly. I'm not sure which was worse: when I made a joke just as Neville took a gulp of his drink and made him splutter butterbeer all down himself, or when it starting to pour with rain and Neville's clever bubble stopped working so we got soaked to our skin.

'I'm sorry, Ginny!' Neville cried as we hastily snatched up the remains of our picnic and made a run for it back to the castle. 'Hermione warned me that the spell would only keep out the cold and it wasn't waterproof – but it wasn't meant to rain tonight!'

But as we arrived, dripping and shivering, back inside the school, I suddenly felt warmer inside than I had in months. Neville had been so thoughtful, so kind all night. We returned to the deserted common room, mostly in silence, but it wasn't an embarrassed silence, it was a comfortable silence: the kind you can only have with your best friends.

Then as we reached the stairs to our separate dormitories, it suddenly hit me that I didn't want to leave him.

'Neville …' I began. Suddenly _I_ was the one lost for words. I wasn't sure exactly what it was I was feeling, but I decided to go with my gut, and I gave him a very swift, short kiss on the lips.

'Night,' I told him simply, and left him looking stunned at the bottom of the stairs.

I couldn't help smiling.

**_ Hermione _**

'What's next, Professor?' I called out as I very carefully stirred the huge cauldron precisely fourteen times anti-clockwise.

Professor Lovegood looked up from the dusty old parchments from which he was reading. 'Now you need to add both the lock of Carlos's hair _and_ the drop of Harry's blood at precisely the same time. It will only work if they both touch the liquid together.'

'All right,' I replied uncertainly. This potion was ten times more difficult than anything I'd ever made before, even for our N.E.W.T.s. And the potion was only the first stage of many. Professor Lovegood had told us it could take anything from days to months to complete all the stages and break the spell.

'Okay, Professor, the potion's turned a sort of murky green now. And it's giving off a dark blue smoke.'

'Good. Now we leave it to simmer for twenty-four hours.'

I gave a sigh of relief and sat down, wiping my brow.

'You should get off to bed, Miss Granger, you look exhausted,' said Professor Lovegood kindly.

'All right. Thank you again for helping us,' I told him as I gathered up my stuff. I couldn't quite work Professor Lovegood out. He was rather strange. He kept insisting that he didn't know much about how we could save Carlos, but so far he had all the answers. It was even he who had pointed out that using Harry's blood in the potion would work in place of Voldemort's, since the pair now shared the same blood.

'I only hope my limited knowledge will be of any use,' Lovegood said apologetically.

I gave him a tight smile and headed back to my room. I expected the common room to be deserted, but instead I found Neville sitting by the fireplace, staring into the flames in a daze. He didn't notice me until I sat down beside him.

'Oh! Hello,' he said, blinking at me.

'How was your date?' I asked.

'Great!' Neville replied

'Did you kiss her?'

'No.'

'Oh well, never mind. There's always next time…'

'She kissed _me_!'

'Oh! Well, that's great, then.' I smiled at Neville. I was happy for him, I really was. But I couldn't help remembering how, when we younger, Neville used to look at me the way he looks at Ginny now. I used to catch him watching me out of the corner in my eye when we were in lessons, but when I looked at him he would snatch his gaze away and go red. The last time I'd seen him look at me that way was when he asked me to the Yule Ball in fourth year. Then he ended up going to the dance with Ginny and his attentions immediately switched to her. I never saw him look at me like that again.

Apart from that one night in the summer. That night, he'd looked at me like I was a princess, told me he'd always had a soft spot for me, and I'd let myself be carried away on a sea of adoration.

But in the morning things had become clear again. Neville was still in love with Ginny and I was still in love with Ron.

I was going to have to tell him about the baby.

'Neville …' I started.

'Mm hmm?' he said vaguely, having lapsed back into his dream world.

'Neville, I have to tell you something. It's important.'

Neville snapped out of his trance and looked at me sincerely. 'What's the matter?'

I studied his concerned face and then took a deep breath.

'I'm – I'm – I'm really happy for you and Ginny.'

'Thanks, Hermione!' said Neville. 'I think I'll get off to bed. Night night.' He kissed me on the cheek and wandered off towards the boys' stairs, humming tunelessly.

I burst into tears.

**_ Luna _**

'So do you think your Dad and Hermione will manage to fix all this?'

Ron and I were the only ones in the Ravenclaw common room. We had been there with Carlos and Harry, but when they went off to bed, thinking that the pair of us were going too, we ended up sticking around for a chat.

I smiled at Ron. 'Of course! My dad can do anything.'

'But he didn't sound very sure.'

'That's just Dad. He's too modest.'

'Oh!' Ron looked pleased to hear that.

'Do you think we should be helping them?' I asked warily.

'Er … best leave them to it,' Ron replied with a slightly shifty look on his face. 'We'd just slow them down.'

'Okay, if you think so,' I agreed uncertainly. If I didn't know any better, I'd think Ron didn't want to be around Hermione.

We lapsed into silence and I stared into the fire, watching shapes dancing in the blue flames.

'How come your Dad's not in the Order of the Phoenix?' Ron asked me. 'He seems to know more about fighting the Dark Arts than the rest of the Order put together.'

I shrugged. 'He was in the original Order. But after Mum died, he wanted to stay away from all that stuff. He'd suffered enough. And he didn't want to risk leaving me an orphan.'

'Oh.'

I smiled at Ron again. He had that look people always got when I mentioned my mum.

'I'm … I'm sorry –' he stuttered.

'Don't,' I said, shaking my head.

It's not that I don't like to talk about my mum, or that it's too painful or anything. It's just that people always look so uncomfortable with it, that I'd rather they didn't try.

'You're so brave, Luna,' Ron said earnestly. He sat back and rested his head against the back of the sofa so it was level with mine.

'Am I?' I asked, mildly surprised. No one had ever called me brave before. Odd, yes. Sometimes imaginative or clever. Even funny. But never brave.

Ron was leaning over as though he was trying to look at something. I stared back at him, questioningly, wondering what he was doing. It was only when his face was almost touching mine that I realised what was happening.

'_Ron!_' I shrieked, leaping back so fast that Ron lost his balance and almost toppled off the sofa. 'What are you _doing?_'

'Oh god. Oh god. What am I doing?' Ron moaned, burying his head in his hands.

**_ Carlos _**

I felt as though an enormous weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Finally someone knew how to help me. At that very moment, Professor Lovegood and Hermione were working away on the first stage of the spell that would save my life. Soon I would be able to start living my life properly, like a normal boy, and concentrate on the little things that teenagers were meant to worry about.

Like whether or not Ron was really cheating on Hermione.

Getting to know Ron was not proving easy. I had spent the whole of the previous evening with he, Luna and Harry, but I could not pick up on anything unusual between Ron and Luna. In fact, they didn't speak to each other very much while Harry and I were there. Maybe I had imagined it all.

Ginny Weasley was sitting in the Gryffindor common room early on Sunday morning. She looked a bit stressed out.

'Hey, Carlos. I've heard you're good at Ancient Runes, fancy giving me a hand with this essay? I'm really stuck!'

Well, okay. Here was a new opportunity. Maybe Ron's sister could give away some of his secrets.

'Sure. Let's go to the library,' I suggested.

As I explained Draco Malfoy appeared in front of us.

'What do you want, Malfoy,' Ginny challenged him.

'Carlos, I need your help,' Draco said quietly, glancing around in fear. 'You know that, er, thing we talked about a few days ago? Well, I've made a decision about it all.'

'Oh?' I said, surprised. Ginny stared at both of us, clearly dying to know what Draco was talking about. 'Sorry, Ginny, I'll be back in a second.'

As soon as we were out of her earshot, Draco turned to me anxiously and said, 'I want out, Carlos. I've had it with all this Death Eater stuff.'

'Are you sure?' I asked him.

'Yes. I'm ready to leave the Dark Lord's service. What do you think I should do first?'

'Well, stop calling him the Dark Lord for a start,' I said firmly. 'Only his followers say that.'

Draco snorted. 'So, what, am I supposed to call him You-Know-Who like all the plebs?'

'How about just _Voldemort?_' I suggested, for the moment ignoring his

Draco blanched. 'I – I don't know,' he stuttered.

'Okay, you can forget that for now,' I relented. 'But if you want to make a start, you can come and sit with Ginny and me and do your homework.'

'What? No way, I'm not sitting with that common little blood traitor!'

'Fine,' I replied coolly. 'Then you can just manage without my help.'

I turned to go back to Ginny, who was leaning so far back in her chair to try to listen to us that she almost tipped over in her haste to pretend she was working on her essay and not eavesdropping.

'Fine, fine!' Draco grumbled. 'But she'd better keep her fat mouth shut.'

**_ Ron _**

Every time the memory of last night hit me, I cringed horribly and felt like dancing up and down in horror. I kept fidgeting and Harry kept shooting annoyed looks at me as he tried to concentrate on his Charms essay. But I couldn't help it. I felt awful. Awful for Hermione, and almost as awful for Luna. I had led her on, used her for her sympathy and now even tried to take advantage of her, all the while knowing she was harbouring feelings for me.

At least, I'd _thought_ she had feelings for me. After last night, I wasn't so sure. I never thought it would be me trying to kiss her and her pushing me away.

But that wasn't important. What was important was that I'd almost cheated on my wife. My beautiful, perfect wife. She would die if she knew what I'd done.

Hermione had been in bed when I'd returned to our room last night. I'd assumed she was asleep. But when I crawled into bed beside her I realised she was crying very quietly, and I was consumed with guilt. Without saying a word, I had wrapped my arms around her, wishing I could make everything better. I knew she didn't have a clue about Luna, but I still felt awful.

'Do you think they're finished making the potion yet?' Harry asked me for the thousandth time.

For the thousandth time I told him I didn't know.

'What is up with the two of you?' Neville asked us. He had rather a smug look on his face. 'You're both acting so jittery.'

'Nothing,' Harry and I replied quickly.

'Yeah, right,' muttered Neville, giving us both an irritating grin.

'Just because _you're_ all happy and loved up, now, Neville,' Harry muttered grumpily.

'What?' I asked, my head snapping up from my textbook. 'Neville's loved up? Who's Neville loved up with?' I looked back and forth between them hopefully, waiting eagerly for the gossip.

'Thanks a lot, Harry,' Neville muttered. 'Ron, I was waiting for a good time to tell you.'

'Tell me what?' I asked warily.

Neville sighed. 'It's your sister.'

I stared at Neville with my mouth hanging open for a moment. Harry was watching me worriedly, but it wasn't Neville I had the problem with.

'I'll be right back,' I told them, and heading out of the common room. I was going to go and have _serious_ words with that sister of mine.

I found Ginny sitting with Carlos in the library, getting help with her Ancient Runes homework. Carlos had long established himself Hogwarts' resident Ancient Runes geek. I was surprised to see that Draco Malfoy was also sitting with them, though.

'Can I have a word, please?' I asked her through gritted teeth.

It was clear Ginny knew immediately what was up. She followed me wordlessly to a quiet corner of the library, although I could see that Malfoy was leaning over with an amused expression, trying to listen in. I ignored him.

'Now, Ron, don't be angry with Neville –' she began.

'It's not Neville I'm angry with, it's _you_ that's the problem!' I cried. 'Are you going to shag _every_ guy in my class? There's only one left to go, you know! Shall I let Seamus know he's next in line?'

'Well not that it's any of your business but I never _shagged_ any of them!' she said quietly.

'Wait – you're not telling me the slapper of Gryffindor is a _virgin?_' came a scathing voice.

'Shut up, _Malfoy!_' Ginny and I both yelled.

I looked from Malfoy back to Ginny. She was staring at me defiantly, but her lower lip was trembling and her eyes were sparkling with tears. Sometimes it was hard for me to see that my little sister was more than just a freckle-nosed little girl. When did she stop being my baby sister and start being a woman?

'Ginny. I'm sorry,' I said reluctantly. 'If you're happy with Neville, then I'm happy for you. Can we just forget all of this?'

She sighed, bit her lip, and looked like she wanted to have a proper go at me.

'It's okay. I know you've got a lot on your mind just now,' she said grudgingly.

**_ Neville _**

'So, er … Harry,' I said as soon as Ron left us. 'Are you, er, okay with me seeing Ginny?'

Harry gave a sigh. 'I don't have a problem with you seeing Ginny, no,' he responded stiffly.

'Oh, that's good,' I said, breathing a sigh of relief. Harry had been a bit funny with me lately, so I wanted to make sure he didn't mind me dating his ex. 'I'm really glad, because you're one of my best mates, Harry, and I wouldn't want to jeopardise our friendship over a girl.'

'Well now you know, Neville. It's not _Ginny_ I have a problem with you seeing.'

I glanced up at Harry in confusion. He was staring at me meaningfully, his eyes burning with fury. Then I suddenly realised. Oh God. _He knows_.

I excused myself from Harry and ran to Professor Lovegood's office, where Ron had mentioned Hermione was doing some extra work for Potions. I was a bit hazy on the details, but sure enough I found her there.

'Neville, what's the matter?' she asked me worriedly as she emerged from the office.

'Harry knows,' I told her urgently. 'I don't know how, but he knows.'

Hermione stared at the ground. 'I know he does. I told him.'

'_Hermione!_' I cried in panic. 'What did you go and do that for? What if he tells Ron?'

'He won't,' she assured me, but she looked worried too. 'I _had_ to tell him, Neville, he was asking too many questions!'

'Questions about what? What did he have to be suspicious about?'

'Never mind that,' she said briskly. 'Anyway, I needed someone to talk to, I was going out of my mind.'

'Well, you could have talked to me,' I pointed out.

She gave a small laugh. 'I couldn't talk to you about it, Neville,' she said quietly, looking at the ground. 'It's too strange.'

'Hermione,' Professor Lovegood said, poking his head out of the door and looking embarrassed at interrupting us. 'That's the potion ready. We should proceed as soon as possible.'

'Oh!' Hermione cried. 'Sorry, Neville, I've got to go. Don't worry about Harry, okay? He can keep a secret.'

She disappeared into the office, leaving me reeling.

I was confused and shaken.

Ever since we slept together I've been wondering if I'm still in love with Hermione.


	7. Ginny's Secret

** Carlos **

I was so happy Draco had decided to quit being a Death Eater. It was brilliant news. I had plenty of ideas of how to help him. The most important thing would be to keep him safe from You-Know-You and his Death Eaters. As long as Draco stayed inside Hogwarts he was relatively safe. And when it came time for him to leave school … well, I had plenty experience of hiding from Death Eaters myself.

Now all I had to concentrate on was getting Draco to change his way of thinking. He had to put an end to all this "mudblood" and "blood traitor" business, and start treating everyone as equals.

The only thing was, though, that I wasn't sure how Harry was going to react to the amount of time I'd be spending with his nemesis …

And between lessons and homework, spending time with Harry, helping Draco, spying on Ron and not to mention the slight matter of removing Voldemort's soul from my body, I began to wonder how I was going to fit everything in.

'Carlos?'

'Hmm?' I looked up from my Transfiguration book to find Ron Weasley looking at me strangely from the armchair across the table from me. None of our other friends were around.

'I was just wondering … what were you doing with Malfoy in the library the other day?'

'We were just chatting. Why do you ask?'

Draco had made me swear not to tell Harry or any of his friends yet about what he was doing, and I planned to keep that promise. If I was going to have any success in helping him, he'd need to see that he could trust me.

'Just curious … I didn't know you two were still friends.'

'He's … he's a rather confused young man,' I said delicately. 'He has a few issues. I'm just trying to help him work through some stuff.'

Ron gave a snort. 'Malfoy? Confused? Yeah right!'

I felt a twinge of anger. 'What are you implying, Ron?' I was careful not to raise my voice above a pleasant murmur.

'Nothing, nothing,' he said quickly. He went back to his textbook, but I soon saw him looking at me again. 'So does Harry know you're helping Malfoy?'

I put down my book. 'No, Ron, I haven't mentioned it to him.'

'Why not, if it's all so innocent? Surely you have nothing to hide?' Ron asked pointedly.

Oh, the irony. Ron Weasley was concerned that I was cheating on his friend.

'Well, feel free to tell Harry whatever you like, Ron. It's no secret. And on that note, how's Luna these days?'

Ron visibly coloured and bowed his head again. _Aha!_

I checked my watch. 'I'd better go. I have to meet Harry,' I said. Ron gave me a weak smile. _What a hypocrite_.

Harry and Hermione were both waiting for me in Professor Lovegood's office. Hermione gave me a warm smile and Harry squeezed my hand as I sat down. They both had a glow about them, and there was an air of excitement in the room.

'Well, Carlos,' Professor Lovegood began. 'It looks like we are ready to begin the process of neutralising the Horcrux.'

'Neutralising …?'

'That's what we call it,' Hermione explained. 'It's not so much a case of destroying the Horcrux, since _you_ are the Horcrux, and that would mean destroying you. So _neutralising_ is the term Professor Lovegood came up with.'

Professor Lovegood nodded at Hermione's words.

'So, we're, er … ready?' I asked. I could feel nerves bubbling up inside me. Harry put his hand reassuringly on my shoulder.

'Yes,' Hermione told me happily.

'And, er, what exactly does the process involve?'

Hermione and Professor Lovegood exchanged the briefest of glances, which only made me more nervous, before Lovegood spoke.

'It's nothing to worry about, Carlos. You won't need to do anything. The first stage involves a potion. This is followed by a spell that must be cast simultaneously by four people.

'And then?'

'Then we check to see if it worked, and if not we go back and make some adjustments,' Hermione replied. 'Right, Professor?'

He nodded.

'So it might not work the first time?' Harry asked.

'No, it might not. But the good news is, if it doesn't work we can try again. We get more than one chance,' Hermione told us.

'What about You-Know-Who?' I asked, quietly voicing the thought that had always plagued me. 'Will he be aware of what we're doing?'

'If we are successful, it is likely You-Know-Who will realise he has lost a Horcrux. Especially since it's his last one,' Lovegood replied, frowning. 'But I don't think he'll be aware of it before that. If our first shot is unsuccessful, I doubt he'll come dashing up to the school to stop us trying again.'

'Okay,' I said, steeling myself. 'When do we begin?'

** Neville **

Ginny snuggled up to me on the sofa. 'What are you reading?' she asked, peering over my shoulder.

'My Potions textbook,' I told her.

'Oh.' She rested her head on my shoulder and gave a little contented sigh.

It was odd; ever since she had kissed me the other night, I hadn't felt so much as a flicker of nerves around her. It was all just very nice and comfortable.

'Neville,' she whispered in my ear.

'Hmm?' I replied absently.

'When do you want to go on another date?'

'A date?' I repeated.

'Yeah!' Ginny's arm was around my neck, stroking my hair. 'The last one was so much fun … so romantic … don't you want to do it again?'

'Yeah, sure,' I replied vaguely, shifting slightly so I could see past her curtain of hair to read my book. 'Maybe next Hogsmeade weekend.'

'Oh. Okay.' Ginny sank back onto her own side of the sofa. I took the opportunity to make a few notes for my essay.

'Neville,' she began again.

'Yes, Ginny?' I replied.

'Nothing. You just look really cute when you're concentrating.'

I shut my book. 'I think I'm going to go to the library.'

Her face fell. 'Oh god. Sorry. Am I annoying you?'

'No, no!' I insisted. 'It's just that … er, I can't concentrate when you're around. Because you're so gorgeous.' I gave her a quick kiss and stood up. 'It's distracting!'

'Oh!' She gave a very un-Ginny-like girlish little giggle and jumped up. 'Okay then. I'll see you later on.'

She threw her arms around my neck, making me stagger, and gave me a huge snog.

'Er, bye then,' I said when she finally let me leave. I kept my head down as I crossed the common room, convinced everyone was laughing at me after that over-the-top kiss.

I didn't know what was up with me. I'd finally got what I wanted, I was with Ginny, and suddenly I was finding it awfully claustrophobic.

I was terribly relieved to sit down in the peace and quiet of the library with one of my most studious classmates.

'You looked stressed, Neville,' Hermione commented. She was poring over her Arithmancy textbook.

'I'm fine,' I responded. 'And speaking of stressed, wasn't that Arithmancy essay due last Tuesday?'

Hermione groaned. 'Don't.'

'What's going on with you, Hermione? I've never seen you miss a deadline.'

She gave me a shifty look. 'I've just had a lot on my plate. I've … been giving Harry a hand. You know how he's working on how to defeat Voldemort?'

I shuddered. I really wish they wouldn't say his name. 'Oh right. Do you need any extra help? What is he doing exactly?'

She shook her head. 'I really shouldn't tell you, Neville.'

'Oh, come on!' I exclaimed. 'I've worked with you before. I've fought Death Eaters with you!'

'I'm sorry, Neville, it's just not my place to tell you. You'll have to talk to Harry if you want to help.'

Frustrated, I started scratching away with my quill so hard that I made a hole in my parchment. I threw down the quill in annoyance.

'Here,' Hermione whispered, pushing a fresh piece of parchment across the table at me.

She gave me a small smile which I grudgingly returned.

'If it's any consolation, I'd love to have you working with us,' she said earnestly. 'And I'm sure Harry will say the same.'

Her words made me feel all warm inside.

** Draco **

Why, oh why, did it never occur to me that if I told Carlos I wanted to "change" it would mean lots of hanging around with Mudbloods and the like? It was bad enough the other day having to sit with that common little blood traitor in the library for half an hour. _Honestly!_ What must people have thought?

'… and I think you should start sitting with us at the Gryffindor table for dinner now and then,' Carlos was saying.

'_WHAT?_' I exclaimed, snapping my head up. I'd only been half-listening up to that point.

'Well, I think it's very important that you encompass a complete change in your values.'

'But … but … surely there are more important things I should be doing? Like helping to defeat the Dark Lor— I mean _You-Know-You_?'

Carlos gave a little laugh. 'All in good time, Draco. You need to learn the basics first.'

'And also, should we really be broadcasting the fact that I'm "changing",' I asked nervously. 'What if it, er, gets back to the Dar— I mean back to _him_ about it?'

'You'll have to face that eventuality some time, Draco. It might as well be now, while you're safe here at school.'

It wasn't the Dark Lord I was worried about, though. He already knew of my plan, so he would only be pleased to hear that I was being convincing. No, I was worried about what the other students, particularly the Slytherins, would think of me fraternising with _those_ kinds of people. I had a reputation to uphold, you know!

** Luna **

'Luna?'

I looked up from my dinner. It was Carlos.

'Hi,' I said shyly. Carlos always made me a bit nervous. He was just so much more of a man than the other Hogwarts boys.

'Luna, I need to ask you something important. Your father says it will take four people to cast the spell to neutralise the Horcrux,' Carlos began seriously.

'I know,' I said, nodding.

'I was hoping you would be one of the four,' he said.

'_Really?_' I squeaked.

'Yes. Harry says you're a very talented witch, and besides, if it wasn't for your help we wouldn't be doing this at all.'

'Carlos, I don't know what to say … I'm honoured … are you sure you want me?'

Carlos looked sad for a moment. 'I don't know many people at Hogwarts yet. You, Harry, Hermione and Ron are my closest friends. Well, apart from Draco.'

'Draco Malfoy?' I repeated thoughtfully. 'It's funny that you're friends with him _and_ with Harry. They don't like each other very much, you know.'

'Yeah, I know that.' He sighed. 'So, Luna, will you help me?'

'Of course!' I agreed.

It was only once Carlos had left that I realised what this meant.

I was going to have to see Ron.

** Hermione **

'Hey.'

Neville slumped into a seat beside me by the common room fire. I glanced up warily. Ron was sitting opposite me. Although he had no idea what had happened with Neville and I, I couldn't help feeling jumpy with the three of us in such close quarters.

'Hey, Neville,' Ron said cheerfully. 'How's it going.'

'Well, I just talked to Harry,' Neville began, looking fed up. 'I told him I wanted to help with whatever work it is you're all doing, and he totally blew me off!'

'What?' Ron exclaimed. 'That's crazy! Why wouldn't Harry want you to help?'

I slid down in my seat and lifted my book higher to hide my flushing cheeks.

'I know,' Neville said forlornly. I felt his eyes darting to me for a second and I turned redder. What the hell was Neville playing at? He knew fine well why Harry didn't want him helping us, and he seemed to be stirring up trouble just for the sake of it.

'Don't worry, Neville, I'll have a word with Harry for you,' Ron assured him, shaking his head in disbelief.

'No!' I blurted out without thinking. Both the boys' gazes fell on me. 'I mean … don't worry, Ron, I'll talk to Harry about it.'

Ron eyed me curiously for a second then shrugged. 'Okay, then.' He gathered up his stuff. 'Gotta go to Quidditch practice. See you later.'

As soon as Ron left the common room, I turned to Neville furiously.

'What are you _doing?_' I hissed at him.

'What? You told me to ask Harry!'

'I didn't tell you to bring the whole thing up in front of Ron! He's going to work out that something happened between us!' My voice was becoming a little shrill.

'Oh, he will not,' Neville muttered dismissively, rolling his eyes.

'Okay, maybe not. But don't you realise how hard it is for me to sit there with the two of you, pretending everything is normal?'

'Well I'm sorry Hermione, but do you think it's easy for me to see you and him together after what happened?'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

We stared at each other for a long time, until Neville looked away, going faintly pink. 'Nothing. It means nothing.'

'I – I thought you were happy with Ginny … haven't you been crazy about her for years?' I said uncertainly.

Neville shrugged. He didn't look at me.

'Neville …?' I said gently. He closed his eyes and dropped his head into his hands.

'Damn,' I muttered, glancing at the clock. 'Neville, I'm really sorry, but I have to go. I'm supposed to be helping Carlos and Harry.'

He finally looked at me, and his eyes were full of disappointment.

'Hermione …'

'What? What is it?'

He shook his head. 'I'm sorry. I'll stay away from Ron and I'll stay away from you.'

'Neville, you know that's not what I meant!' I said, exasperated. I glanced at the clock again. 'Look, I promise we'll talk soon, okay?'

He nodded, looking thoroughly miserable.

I left the common room, feeling like crap.

** Harry **

Carlos and I were waiting in Professor Lovegood's office for Luna, Hermione and Ron to get there. Carlos was sitting reading his Charms textbook, looking remarkably calm. I was pacing the room anxiously.

'Harry, relax, they'll be here soon!' Carlos told me. He was actually grinning. _Grinning!_ How could he be so calm?!

'I know,' I replied, wringing my hands. 'I just wish Professor Lovegood was going to be here to supervise.'

'I know,' Carlos agreed. 'But he had to go away on important business, and he's passed on all the information we need to Hermione, she knows it all. Come on, she won't let us down! She's the swot of Gryffindor, for goodness' sake!'

I grinned. I couldn't help it.

'A smile. That's better,' Carlos said, taking my hand.

'You're right. We can rely on Hermione.' I nodded. 'Although …'

'Although what?' Carlos looked worried.

'She's had a lot on her mind lately. What if she's not fully concentrating on it all?'

'Yeah, she certainly has enough to worry about,' Carlos muttered under his breath.

'What?' I said, surprised. I hadn't breathed a word of Hermione's affair or her pregnancy to Carlos, despite how much I'd wanted to tell someone. What was _he_ talking about?

Carlos looked slightly shifty.

'Do you know something?' I asked,

'Do _you_ know something?' Carlos retorted quickly.

There was a soft knock on the door and Hermione entered the room.

'Hi!' Carlos said to her quickly. I was too nervous to speak.

'Hey,' Hermione greeted us. 'All set?'

We nodded.

'Where's Ron?' I managed to ask her.

'He'll be here soon, he just popped down to Quidditch practice first.'

'Quidditch practice?!' I exclaimed, outraged, although trying to ignore the twinge of jealousy I felt. I hadn't even been on a broom in weeks, never mind played any Quidditch.

'Relax, Harry, he wasn't going to stay the whole time!' Hermione said impatiently. 'He was just going to start them off and then leave Ginny in charge.'

'Are you sure?' I asked.

Carlos grabbed my hand. 'Harry, relax! It'll be okay.'

'But we only have a short window we can do this in,' I reminded them, yet again. 'Otherwise the potion will go off and none of it will work!'

'Harry, we know!' Hermione insisted. She began pulling out Professor Lovegood's notes on the spell, and moving tables and chairs.

'Let me do that,' I interrupted as she went to heave a large table across the room. She gave me a look that plainly told me to be less obvious. I tutted and started dragging the chair across the room.

Ten minutes later, the three of us plus Luna were sitting in the office, all of us glancing at the clock at ten second intervals.

'Where is Ron?' I exclaimed, throwing up my hands.

'He'll be here any minute, Harry,' Hermione assured me.

Sure enough, he came puffing through the door a minute later, splattered with mud and red in the face.

'Sorry, guys, I'm sorry!' he gasped.

'We were starting to worry about you,' Carlos said, his tone almost menacing. If I hadn't known Carlos so well, I'd have thought he was pissed off with Ron for being a litle late. But that was ridiculous!

'Sorry, Carlos,' Ron mumbled. The pair stared at each other with a bizarre sort of angry intensity.

'Are we ready to start, then?' Luna asked. She looked rather uncomfortable with the sudden tension in the room.

'Yes,' said Hermione. 'Let's do this.'

** Ginny **

'Okay team!' I shouted into the wind. 'We're going to try a new formation Ron told me about! Beaters over here, please!'

I was loving this opportunity to play Captain. Everyone, including myself, was sure I'd be made Quidditch Captain next year, and this was the perfect chance to work on my leadership skills. I was so happy that Ron was busy with … well, whatever it was he was doing. I had given up trying to find out what they were all up to. Harry, Ron, Hermione and now Carlos too, just loved being a superior little group and keeping secrets from everyone else. They thought they were so special. Well, maybe I had some secrets of my own …

As the six of us whipped up and down the pitch, I happened to glance down and see a familiar figure watching us from the stands.

Immediately my heart jumped into my throat.

I had started feeling really nervous whenever Neville was around. I couldn't explain it: one second I was dubious about even going on a date with him; the next, I was getting butterflies at the mere thought of him. I couldn't understand it. I'd thought I was still not over Harry. I'd thought going out with Neville was a mistake and I would only end up hurting a boy who had a very obvious crush on me. Suddenly it was as though I was the one with the hopeless crush.

Neville gave me a small wave and I almost crashed into Demelza Robins.

'Sorry!' I called as I zoomed away from her.

I tried to concentrate on the practice, but all I could think about now was how much I wanted to impress Neville. I chanced a quick glance down at him again.

'Ginny, watch out!' called Jimmy Peakes. I looked around in surprise, and saw something dark hurtling at my face.

The next thing I knew, I was lying flat out on the ground.

'Wh – wha?' I tried to say.

Jimmy and Demelza were leaning over me.

'You got hit in the face by a Bludger,' Demelza explained.

'I'm really sorry, Ginny,' said Jimmy, looking horrified.

I lifted a hand to my face and winced as soon as my fingers touched my bruised cheek.

Neville appeared above me, looking flustered. 'Ginny, are you okay?' he exclaimed. 'Let me take you to the hospital wing!'

'Come on, guys, I'm fine!' I insisted, sitting up and starting to get to my feet. My head began to spin a little and I staggered. Jimmy and Demelza grabbed me.

'You're going,' Demelza said firmly.

** Ron **

We positioned ourselves in a circle around Carlos and somehow I found myself beside Luna. She had completely avoided eye contact with me since I arrived in the office. I'd tried to smile at her when I got there, but she had just looked away. I felt awful.

Carlos stood nervously in the centre of the circle with the test tube full of bright green liquid.

'Okay,' said Hermione. 'Now does everyone remember the incantation?'

We all nodded. Harry looked terrified. Hermione looked determined. Luna looked vaguely distracted.

'Okay, Carlos,' said Hermione. 'Take one sip of the potion now, and then another after we begin the spell.'

Carlos nodded and lifted the test tube. He had his back to me, but I still saw him shiver as he swallowed the vile substance.

'Okay,' said Hermione, and I detected nervousness in her voice. I tried to smile reassuringly at her, but she didn't look at me. 'Luna, do you want to do the honours?'

Luna nodded at Hermione.

'Ready?' Luna called out to us. 'One … two … three …'

'_KORGATORFIRUS!_' we all yelled.

A neon pink light burst forth from each of our wands. The four bolts of light met in the middle where Carlos stood and he was illuminated in a brilliant glow of red light. My wand was vibrating violently and I had to fight to keep it still. I glanced up and my gaze happened to meet Luna's. Her face was set as she wrestled to keep her wand steady, but her eyes remained steadily focused on mine. I felt a shiver run up my spine. I couldn't take my eyes off her.

'Okay, Carlos, now you have to take another sip of the potion!' Hermione yelled over the loud buzz of the spells.

Through the dazzling light, I could just make out Carlos lifting the test tube to his mouth again.

An explosion of bright blue smoke burst forth from centre of the circle and Carlos was thrown across the room. He smashed against the wall and slumped to the ground, where he lay still.

'Carlos!' Harry shrieked, and ran towards him.

I began to move towards Carlos too, when a small strangled cry from Luna stopped me in my tracks. I looked over my shoulder and my heart leaped into my mouth.

Hermione was lying on the ground as well, unmoving.


	8. Hermione's Second Secret

** Carlos **

As I struggled to sit up, Harry's face swam vaguely into focus above me, worry clearly showing in his expression.

'Are you okay?' he asked me, gripping my shoulder.

'Fine,' I wheezed. My voice sounded very far away. 'Just need to catch my breath.'

'Harry!' a voice called. I looked across the room to where Luna's voice had come from, but all I could see were dark, blurry shapes.

Harry jumped up. 'Oh my god, _Hermione!_' he cried and disappeared from my line of vision. I struggled to sit up and see what was happening.

The dark blurry shapes came into focus a little more. Three figures were stooped over a crumpled heap. Blinking, I realised the crumpled heap was Hermione.

'Is she okay?' I called weakly. Harry came back over to where I was sitting, slumped against the wall.

'I don't know. She's out cold, but she's still breathing. Ron's going to take her to the hospital wing, and I think you should go too.'

'No, Harry, I'm fine, honestly!' I started to pull myself to my feet, but a wave of dizziness washed over me and Harry had to grab my arm to keep me steady. He raised his eyebrows at me meaningfully.

'Okay, okay,' I relented.

Harry supported me all the way to the hospital wing. I tried to insist I could walk on my own, but truthfully, my legs felt so weak I would have fallen over if he had let go. So I let Harry half-carry me all the way to Madam Pomfrey.

Behind us, Ron was carrying Hermione, aided by Luna. Both of them were very quiet and looked terribly worried. I hadn't realised Luna and Hermione were all that close – they'd never given that impression – but Luna looked as upset as Ron. _Or was that guilt?_

With all the panic, we were almost at the hospital wing before it even occurred to me. _Had it worked!_ I glanced at Harry and I could tell it had just occurred to him too. He raised his eyebrows at me and I shrugged. I felt drained and sore all over, but how was I meant to tell whether there was still a piece of someone's soul inside me?

'Oh my goodness!' Madam Pomfrey cried as we all staggered through her doorway. She motioned Ron over to the closest bed, where he laid Hermione's limp form down. Harry guided me onto the bed next to her, but I refused to lie down and instead sat watching Madam Pomfrey begin to work on Hermione. She was moving her wand above Hermione's torso, muttering under her breath. I assumed she was performing some sort of diagnosing charm.

Pausing between her murmurs, Madam Pomfrey asked, 'What on earth happened?'

The four of us glanced at each other furtively.

'Well?' the matron asked us all, sternly. 'I can tell it's spell damage, there's no point trying to deny it. I suppose you were messing around, were you? Trying to perform spells you shouldn't have been? The sooner you tell me what spell it was that hurt her, the sooner I can cure her!'

After another glance between the four of us, Luna spoke up quietly.

'We weren't messing about.'

'Oh?' said Madam Pomfrey.

'We had been working on a spell with Professor Lovegood,' Ron continued for her. He looked at Luna and Luna looked away quickly.

'What sort of spell?' Madam Pomfrey asked suspiciously. Her gaze lingered on Harry, and it was clear she was well accustomed to Harry being involved in all things dangerous.

With another glance shared between the four of us, Harry took a deep breath and explained everything to her.

Madam Pomfrey's eyes grew wider and wider and when Harry finished she was quiet for a moment. Her lips were pressed together so hard they turned white.

'Right,' she said. She opened and closed her mouth a few times but nothing came out. 'Right.'

We waited.

'Luna, dear, go to Professor McGonagall and ask her to summon your father back to school right away,' the matron said calmly.

Luna nodded, looking pale and anxious, and took off at a jog.

'Ginny, dear, I'll be in in a moment!' Madam Pomfrey called through to the other room. 'I have another patient here that needs urgent attention.'

Ron's head snapped up. 'Ginny? Ginny's here?'

Madam Pomfrey nodded. 'Took a Bludger to the face, the poor dear, very nasty indeed.' She clocked Ron's expression. 'Oh, that's right, she's your sister, isn't she? Now, don't worry, dear, she's fine. It's this one here we have to worry about.'

Everyone's gaze turned to Hermione, still and lifeless on the bed.

** Ginny **

I sat on the edge of Madam Pomfrey's desk in her office while, swinging my legs and waiting for Madam Pomfrey to return. I prodded at my face a couple of times. It felt about ten times its normal size and hurt like hell. I couldn't even open my left eye. I hadn't seen it in a mirror yet, but I was fairly certain I looked a mess. Hopefully the matron would be able to get rid of it before anyone else saw me. I was already cringing at the thought that not only had Neville seen my mashed face, but he had also seen the spectacularly humiliating incident which caused it, and to make matters worse, he probably knew it was him that had distracted me. _Really smooth, Ginny_.

I could hear voices coming from the next room. Several voices, all sounding very tense, mixed in with Madam Pomfrey's stern tones. It sounded serious. Gradually, I realised the voices were kind of familiar.

'Ron?' I said, poking my head round the door. 'What's going on?'

They were all huddled around a bed. Harry motioned me in and I moved towards them.

Somebody moved and immediately I saw the figure lying on the bed. Hermione was lying perfectly still. She could have been dead. Madam Pomfrey was fussing over her, administering potions and muttering spells.

Carlos was on the next bed over, shaking and deathly pale as though he was recovering from a nasty curse as well.

'Oh god,' I murmured, my head spinning. Images of Death Eaters and battles flew into my mind. Was the school under attack again?

'Ginny, your face … are you okay?' Harry asked.

'Fine,' I said briskly. 'What happened?'

They ignored me. Harry was fussing over Carlos and Ron looked horribly dazed. Luna walked into the infirmary and said earnestly, 'My dad's on his way back now, Madam Pomfrey.'

'Harry … Carlos, Luna, Ron, someone … what the hell happened?' I asked again. Nothing.

There was the sound of running footsteps and Neville appeared, panting in the doorway. For the first time in days I was too pre-occupied to care about Neville.

'Ginny, are you all right?' Neville gasped, then he clocked the huddle around the bed. 'Oh my god, what's wrong with Hermione?'

'Will somebody please tell me what happened!' I cried.

'Right,' said Madam Pomfrey severely. 'There are a few too many people in here. Harry, Neville, Luna, _out_. Ginny – go back and wait in my office and I'll see to your face. Carlos, you go with her and I'll check you over in a minute.'

The five of us chorused in protest, but suddenly, all looking at Ron, we stopped. He looked distraught.

I squeezed my brother's shoulder reassuringly, and turned back to Madam Pomfrey's office. Carlos got up to follow me and when I saw how shaky he was, I helped him walk.

'Come on,' Harry said to Luna and Neville. 'Let's go and leave Ron and Hermione in peace.'

The three of them left. Madam Pomfrey continued to work on Hermione, and Carlos closed the door of the office behind us and sank into a chair with a trembling hand over his eyes.

'Please, Carlos,' I said, shocked to feel tears welling up in my eyes. 'You have to tell me what happened to you both, I'm going out of my mind here.'

'All right,' Carlos nodded. He looked close to tears too. 'I'll tell you.'

** Harry **

Luna, Neville and myself went to the Ravenclaw common room to wait for any news. We didn't quite know what to do with ourselves, so we killed time by explaining to Neville everything that had happened.

After half an hour or so, Carlos walked into the common room with Ginny, whose face was now healed. From her expression, I could tell she now knew the whole story.

'Hey!' I cried, jumping up. 'How are you feeling, Carlos?'

His face had a bit more colour and he managed to smile at me. 'I'm fine. Madam Pomfrey says there's no lasting damage.'

'And Hermione?'

Carlos shook his head mournfully. 'Just the same.'

Carlos sat down beside me and I put my arm around him. He sank against me gratefully. He was still trembling ever so slightly.

Ginny fell straight into Neville's arms. The two of them both looked rather shaken as well. It wasn't surprising, after the revelation they had both just heard.

A short while later, the common room swung open again. This time it was Professor Lovegood. My heart started to thump. Now we could find out whether the spell had worked.

'Well,' he said shortly, surveying us all with an unreadable expression.

'Have you seen Hermione?' I asked him tentatively, afraid of what I might hear about her.

'Yes.' He looked extremely tense. 'She is very ill indeed, but Madam Pomfrey and I are doing everything we can for her and we hope she will make a good recovery.'

'Professor, I don't know what went wrong,' I began.

The Professor stared at us furiously, and I trailed off, confused by his livid expression.

'Would somebody like to tell me what you all thought you were doing?' he asked very quietly.

'We … we tried the spell, just like you said.'

'I thought I told you on no account were you to proceed without me?'

We glanced at each other uncertainly. 'Did you?' I ventured.

'I explicitly told Hermione that you were to wait until I was back before you did anything.'

I slumped back in my chair. 'Hermione never told us you'd said that.'

Carlos looked like he wanted to cry.

Professor Lovegood's expression softened. He was quiet for a very long time.

'So …' I began cautiously, afraid he would get angry again. 'So … do you think it sounds like it worked?'

The Professor looked at me sharply. 'I really couldn'tc say.'

I was crushed. I thought that with such violent consequences, the spell was sure to have worked.

'I will see Carlos tomorrow, when hopefully he will be fully recovered. Then we can determine whether or not it worked, and if not, what went wrong.'

We all nodded listlessly. Professor Lovegood gave us one last, woeful look, and left.

'What do we do now?' asked Neville.

'Let's just try to keep our minds off it,' Ginny suggested.

We managed to stare at our textbooks for a full sixty seconds.

'I can't stand this,' I announced. 'I'm going to check on Hermione.'

** Draco **

I couldn't find Carlos all day. In fact, I didn't even see any of his pathetic friends. The only sign of them was a brief glance of loony Luna Lovegood as she ran past me in the hall. I called after her, asking if she knew where Carlos was, and I _think_ she replied 'hospital wing,' but I really wasn't sure: when I went up there, Madam Pomfrey completely refused to let me in.

Typical: just when I am ready to tell him I'll do as he says and lower myself to sitting with the Gryffindors, he disappears off the face of the earth. And after just one day apart, I was missing him desperately.

I was completely obsessed.

I was forced to spend the entire day with Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy for the first time in ages, and it was utterly dull.

** Ron **

Staring down at my beautiful wife, my stomach churned with guilt. I had been busy thinking about another girl while Hermione was being hit by a dangerous spell.

'Oh, Hermione …' I whispered. 'Please wake up. I wish I could tell you how much I love you … how you're the only girl for me … if only I'd realised it sooner.'

'Ron?'

I whipped round. Harry was watching me with a rather odd look on his face.

'Harry!' I gasped, hastily swiping the tears out of my eyes.

'I'm sorry … sorry … didn't mean to interrupt.' He looked horrified to have intruded on such a private moment. He edged slowly into a seat on the other side of Hermione's bed.

'S'okay,' I said thickly.

'What were you talking about there?'

_Oh no._ 'What do you mean?' I asked, not looking at him.

'About how you wished you'd realised it sooner?'

'Oh. That.' I stalled, stroking Hermione's hand and fiddling with her hair. If Harry knew the truth he would murder me. What could be worse than one of his best friends thinking about cheating on his other best friend? 'I … er …'

'Oh, god. I'm sorry, Ron, it's none of my business.' Harry rubbed his face wearily. 'Everything's so messed up, isn't it?'

I nodded heavily.

'Well … I think I'll get going. You know where I am if you need me.'

I nodded. I must have looked miserable, because Harry put his hand on my shoulder. 'Ron … I'm so, so sorry about this.'

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. Looking full of guilt, Harry left.

'Ron,' Madam Pomfrey said, bustling back into the room. 'I've done some tests, and while Hermione's not out of the woods yet, you'll be pleased to hear that baby is definitely fine.'

'B – _baby?_'

** Luna **

As the night wore on and we grew more and more restless, the others gradually left. Neville and Ginny disappeared back to their common room first, and Harry managed to convince Carlos he needed an early night.

Full of woe, I went to see my Dad. He looked very upset when I went into his office, but he tried to smile for my benefit. He always did that.

'Dad, do you really think Hermione will be okay?'

I knew he would be completely truthful with me. We always were with each other.

'I hope so, Luna, I hope so.'

I sighed. 'Why didn't you tell me that we hadn't to perform the spell without you?'

He shook his head sadly. 'It didn't occur to me that I needed to tell anyone but Hermione. I knew that without her, none of you would be able to try it, and I never dreamed she would go against my instructions.'

It certainly wasn't like Hermione at all. What had she been thinking? _What if we never find out?_

I shuddered.

Every fibre of my being wanted to run to Ron. I had got so used to going to him whenever I was upset. I had become addicted to him.

But I knew I would be the last person Ron wanted to see. From the moment Hermione had got hurt, I had felt the guilt coming off him in waves. This tragedy had obviously shocked him into deciding who it was he really loved.

If there had ever been anything more than friendship between Ron and I, it was dead and buried now.

** Neville **

I convinced Ginny to go bed early. Although her face had been fixed, she had complained of a headache, and after the horrific events of the day she looked knackered.

I knew I would never sleep that night. I was still reeling from it all. The revelation about Carlos was horrendous enough. But the vision of Hermione lying in the infirmary … it would haunt me for a long time. I would wait up all night if I had to, but I couldn't rest until I heard some news.

Ron staggered through the common room door at a very late hour, looking thoroughly exhausted and rather dazed.

'How is she?' I asked anxiously.

'She's … she's still unconscious … I don't know … er ….' Ron looked at me, utterly confused. 'She's pregnant.'

I nearly fell off my chair.


	9. Harry's Secret

** Harry **

After miraculously managing to doze off, I was woken at about three in the morning by Ron stumbling into my dormitory. Seamus and Dean were fast asleep. Neville was nowhere to be seen.

'What are you doing in here?' I whispered to Ron, propping myself up on my elbow and watching in confusion as Ron climbed into his old bed.

'Couldn't go back to my own room …' he murmured as he pulled the covers over himself. 'Not while Hermione's …. you know.'

My heart ached for poor Ron. I had never seen him such a mess. He could barely string a sentence together.

'Any news?' I asked, filled with hope and dread at the same time.

Silence for a while. Then, 'No. Nothing's changed.'

Part of me was furious with Hermione: furious at her for putting herself and the rest of us in danger by disobeying Lovegood; furious at her for cheating on Ron and being unworthy of his concern; but mostly, and irrationally, furious at her for getting hurt and making me physically sick with worry. Not to mention what it was doing to her husband.

Ron was quiet for a while and I began to think he'd fallen asleep. Then, seemingly hours later, his voice came unexpectedly out of the darkness.

'Hermione's having a baby.'

A million thoughts raced through my head. I hadn't forgotten about her pregnancy, but I'd pushed the thought to the back of my mind since Hermione got hurt. _Wait and see if she's okay. Then worry about the baby._

'Oh?' I said, trying to sound shocked.

'Yeah,' came Ron's disembodied voice. 'I didn't know. I don't even think _she_ knew. She couldn't have done, I know she'd have told me.'

My insides twisted with guilt. I longed to spill every little detail to him, but I couldn't bear the idea of him being in any more pain than he already was.

'Is – is the baby okay?'

'Yeah.'

'Well.' I didn't know what to say. 'That's good, then.'

'Yeah.'

I didn't sleep another wink that night, and I know Ron didn't either.

** Neville **

I sat hunched in my seat in the common room all night, then watched the sun begin to creep over the horizon. Gradually, students began trickling down from their dormitories for breakfast, and I tried to look as though I'd just got up early, rather than been there all night. I don't know why I was worried, though. No one gave me a second glance. No one usually does …

Ron was one of the first down. He looked very white … in fact, almost green, as he crossed the common room with his head down. He barely said hello to me which was hardly surprising. I called after him that I hoped Hermione was better today. He gave me a slight wave, and was gone.

The moment Harry entered the common room, I jumped out of my seat.

'Harry, can I have a word?' I said urgently,

Harry started to glare at me, then his expression softened. It was as though he just didn't have the energy to be angry with me any more.

I pulled him towards a quiet corner. 'Er … I know you probably don't want to hear this or get involved, but Ron told me Hermione's pregnant …'

Harry's eyes popped. 'Ron told you that?!'

'Well, he just kind of blurted it out. He was a bit out of it.'

Harry exhaled loudly.

'Yeah … so … er …' I trailed off. I just couldn't say it. Not to Harry.

'What, and you're wondering if it's yours?' he sneered at me. His expression was full of hate again. I wanted to disappear.

'No, of course not,' I said. _Well, actually…_

'Don't worry, Longbottom,' Harry snarled. 'You and Hermione's filthy little secret is safe for the time being. The baby's Ron's.'

He stalked away from me, slamming the Fat Lady's portrait closed on his way out of the common room. I could hear the Fat Lady's squealing and swearing chasing me all the way up to my dormitory, where I crawled under my covers and let the hot tears pour over my cheeks.

** Ron **

Once more, I found myself sitting by my wife's bedside, holding her hand. Madam Pomfrey came and went, doing strange tests, looking tense at times, and not saying much. That suited me just fine. The last thing I wanted to do was make small talk with the matron.

When it was still early, Harry joined me at Hermione's bedside, like he'd promised he would. He, too, seemed to know I didn't want to talk. In fact, I don't think he said a single word to me. He just sat on Hermione's other side and held her hand too. I was pretty sure he was doing that more for my benefit than for her.

I knew Harry and Hermione had been fighting about something before this happened, and it was a mark of the close friendship the three of us all had that he could forget whatever the argument was to be with her and with me at a time like this.

Around nine o'clock, Luna walked into the hospital wing and made a beeline for us.

'Any news?' she asked briskly. I shook my head. My chest felt very tight all of a sudden, as it had done whenever Luna had been in the room recently.

'My dad wants you to go and see him at ten o'clock this morning,' Luna said to Harry. 'He says he has some information about whether the spell worked.'

Harry breathed in sharply. 'Really?' he said in a slightly squeaky voice.

Luna nodded. 'He wouldn't tell me anything … but I know my dad very well, and from the look he had on his face I'm sure that it must be good news.'

Harry glanced at me surreptitiously. I could tell he was trying to hold back his excitement for my sake. I gave him a small smile. At least, I tried to.

'That's great news, Harry,' I managed to say.

'Okay,' Harry said, nodding at Luna. He turned to me. 'Ron, I want you to go with Luna and have some breakfast.'

Luna looked almost as horrified as I did at that suggestion.

'I'm not leaving Hermione,' I said flatly.

'Please, Ron,' Harry insisted. 'When Hermione comes round she's going to need you. You need to keep your strength up for her. Please. I'll stay with her while you're gone.'

'You need to eat, Ron,' Luna piped up quietly. She looked very worried. A few days ago that might have meant a lot more to me. Now it only reminded me of my guilt.

I wanted to argue, but I knew Harry wouldn't budge an inch. And if Hermione wakened up when I wasn't there … well, I would rather it was Harry that was with her than anyone else.

'Okay,' I nodded.

** Ginny **

I had a free period first thing in the morning, so I went to the hospital wing to see if there was any news about Hermione and to see if Ron needed any company. I was surprised to see that Ron wasn't even there, but Harry was sitting alone by Hermione's bed. As I watched him from the door, my heart went out to him. Hermione was one of his best friends – Harry must have been devastated about this. He was trying to act strong for Ron, but I could tell he was having a hard time with it. I wished there was something I could do. Things had been strange between Harry and I ever since we broke up, but I still cared for him … more than he would ever know … and it was time to swallow my pride and be a good friend.

As I moved silently towards Harry, being quiet so as not to disturb his private moment with his friend, I realised he was talking, very softly.

'I lied, Hermione. I lied to Neville about your baby.'

I stopped, confused. _Hermione's pregnant?_ My belly twisted with bittersweet happiness. Ron was going to be a dad! Hell, I was going to be an _aunt!_

'I told him it was Ron's. I don't know why I did it. I just didn't want anyone to be in any more pain than they already are.'

_Oh God_. Hermione was pregnant with _Harry's_ baby!

'I can't even look at Neville right now,' Harry continued, dropping his head into his hands.

I didn't blame him for not wanting to face Neville. I was surprised Harry could look _any_ of us in the eye. How could Harry have done this to Ron?!

'I don't know what to do. What if you never wake up, Hermione? Am I just supposed to lie to Ron, to Neville, to everyone for the rest of our lives?'

Well, maybe Harry was going to lie to everyone. But I certainly wasn't.

** Luna **

Breakfast with Ron was an uncomfortable experience to say the least. He glared at me the entire time as I tried to convince him to eat, but thankfully I managed to persuade him into swallowing a piece of toast and half a banana.

After less than ten minutes in the Great Hall, he got up to return to the infirmary.

'Do you want me to walk you back up?' I asked tentatively.

'No thanks,' Ron practically spat at me.

'It's not my fault Hermione got hurt, Ron,' I blurted out. I couldn't believe I'd just said that.

For a moment he stared at me furiously and I thought he was going to explode at me. Then he seemed to sag slightly.

'I know,' he whispered.

'It's not your fault either,' I added.

He nodded.

'You know I'm here for you, Ron.'

He gave a small sigh, or maybe a sob, I wasn't quite sure.

'Thanks, Luna,' he replied.

I wanted to give him a hug, but there was no way I could bring myself to get that close to him. He gave me a small smile and headed to the stairs.

Carlos, Harry and I arrived at my father's office at ten o'clock sharp. The three of us looked at each other nervously before I knocked and let myself in.

The moment he saw us, my dad grinned. Immediately I knew my instinct had been right. It was good news.

'Carlos, spell must have worked,' Dad said. 'You're not a Horcrux any more. You're free.'

** Carlos **

I felt as though I was walking on air. For the first time in my life, I was normal. _Normal!_ No longer Carlos-the-Horcrux, no longer Carlos-the-Death-Eater's-son. Just Carlos.

I thought nothing could bring me down from this amazing high.

Harry and Luna headed straight back to the hospital wing, and I told them I would join them soon. But first I had to write to my mother and tell her the amazing news.

After sending the letter using Harry's owl, I was heading back down the icy steps from the owlery when a small figure ran into me.

'Ginny?'

I picked her up off the ground and I was shocked to see tears forming in her eyes.

'Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?'

She shook her head. 'I've … I've just been to see Hermione.' Ginny's tears overflowed.

'Oh …' I said knowingly. Poor Ginny. I knew she was good friends with Hermione, and she was her sister-in-law as well, after all.

'She's pregnant.'

'What?' I exclaimed. 'How do you know? Is she awake?'

Ginny shook her head again

'I heard … heard Harry talking about it … oh Carlos, it's awful!'

I pulled her to me and wrapped my arms around her as she sobbed. _Poor thing_. It certainly was awful. What if the spell had hurt the baby in some way? What if the baby survived but Hermione died and the baby had to grow up without its mother? It was a tragedy.

'I know it seems bad,' I murmured soothingly. 'But I'm sure Hermione and the baby will both be okay.'

'No, Carlos, you don't understand!' she cried, stamping her foot. 'Ron's not the father of Hermione's baby … Harry is.'

** Ron's POV **

Harry and Luna returned to the hospital wing around lunch time. They told me the wonderful news about Carlos and I was genuinely happy to hear it. At least Hermione hadn't got hurt for no reason. I was so proud of her for making the spell work. I just hoped I would get to tell her that.

Harry, Luna and I sat by Hermione's bedside for the rest of the day. Carlos was apparently meant to join us too, but he didn't turn up. I wasn't terribly bothered. I told Harry I didn't mind if he went to look for him, but Harry didn't seem very worried, either.

'The most important thing is you and Hermione. Carlos can take care of himself.'

The afternoon wore on, interrupted by Harry forcing me to go and have lunch. I forced down a few bites and raced back, afraid I was going to miss something crucial. What that was, I had no idea.

'Ron … did you see any sign of Carlos?' Harry asked me tentatively. I shook my head as I took my seat again.

Harry sighed. 'I hope something hasn't happened to him.'

'Don't worry, Harry,' I told him. 'He's safe here. No one can get to him. Not even You-Know-Who.'

'Harry … Ron …' Luna said suddenly. 'She's opening her eyes!'

** Hermione **

'… she's waking up …'

Shapes … blurry shapes above me … miles above … I felt as though I was floating upwards from the bottom of a deep ocean. I could hear distorted voices above me, very far away … figures were gradually coming into focus, their faces beginning to take forms.

'Hermione?' came a familiar voice.

'R – Ron?' I murmured. At least, I think I murmured it. I felt as though I was dreaming.

'Can you hear me, sweetheart?'

'My – my baby … is my baby all right?' I whispered faintly.


	10. Everyone's Secrets

** Luna **

Harry and I were swiftly kicked out of the infirmary while Madam Pomfrey flapped around Hermione. The pair of us made stood outside the infirmary door in a daze, chattering madly in excitement.

'We have to find the others and tell them she's awake!' I exclaimed happily.

'Yeah!' Harry agreed, his face stretched into the biggest grin I'd seen on him this year … come to think of it, that I'd seen on him _ever_. 'I wonder where on earth Carlos is?'

'I'm going to go and get some dinner, do you want to come with me?' I suggested. 'Maybe Carlos will be there?'

'I think I'll wait around here and see if I can get to see Hermione,' Harry replied. 'Then I'll check the common rooms to see if he's there.'

'Okay, well if I see anyone then I'll pass on the news!' I left Harry trying to peer into the infirmary and I descended to the ground floor to the Great Hall. I didn't get very far before I spotted Carlos and Ginny coming in the front doors of the castle, shivering and dusting snow flakes off their shoulders.

'Guys!' I exclaimed. 'You're not going to believe it, Hermione's awake!'

Ginny looked like she didn't know whether to laugh or cry – I knew how she felt.

'She's – she's really awake?' she repeated, still not quite smiling.

'Is she all right?' Carlos asked anxiously.

'I think so,' I replied. 'She was talking and sitting up when Madam Pomfrey made us leave … oh, by the way, Harry's been wondering where you got to, Carlos.'

Ginny and Carlos exchanged a tiny glance and Carlos looked rather tense. What on earth was the matter with them?

'I'll – I'll find him later on,' Carlos told me, then kissed me on the cheek and left.

'What was that all about?' I asked Ginny. 'I thought you guys would be ecstatic!'

Ginny blinked. 'We are …of course we are.'

'So what's up with Carlos?'

Ginny blushed. If it wasn't for the fact that Carlos was going out with Harry, I'd have been sure something was going on between them. But there couldn't be … could there?

** Hermione **

Propped up against about fifteen pillows, I felt my strength gradually begin to return. Madam Pomfrey and Ron were constantly fussing over me, asking how I felt, what I remembered, what year it was and who was the Minister for Magic.

'Rufus Scrimgeour,' I replied wearily. 'And it's 1998. Happy?'

'Almost,' Ron replied. He turned to Madam Pomfrey. 'Can I have a moment alone with my wife please?'

The matron nodded and left the room. Ron was staring at me curiously … in fact, almost angrily. Suddenly I realised: he must have somehow found out about me and Neville.

'What – what is it, Ron?' I asked weakly.

'Why didn't you tell me about the baby, Hermione?' He looked hurt and confused. I wanted to cry.

'I'm so sorry, Ron, I wanted to tell you,' I said, sniffing. 'How did you find out?'

'Madam Pomfrey told me,' he said stiffly.

'Eh?'

'She assumed I already knew. She was trying to reassure me by telling me the baby was okay. I assumed you didn't know you were pregnant yet or else you'd have told me, but then when you woke up the first words out of your mouth were about the baby. If you knew then why didn't you tell me?'

My mind was spinning. Ron didn't suspect the baby wasn't his after all. I didn't know what to say. Then I burst into tears.

'Oh, sweetheart, it's okay!' Ron whispered, moving to sit on the edge of my bed and hugging me. 'Did you not think I'd be happy about it?'

Gasping through my tears, I managed to say, 'I don't know.'

'Hermione … I'm over the moon!'

Ron and Madam Pomfrey left me alone to have a nap. When I woke up, Harry was sitting in a chair beside my bed.

'Harry?' I whispered blearily. My head still felt a little fuzzy. I hadn't seen more than a glimpse of Harry since I woke up from the curse. As soon as Madam Pomfrey had seen that I was awake she had sent away everyone but Ron while she examined me.

Harry sat by my bed, biting his lip. I couldn't read his expression. I so badly wanted to know what he was thinking: I was certain he was furious with me on more than one count.

'Harry,' I whispered, feeling my eyes fill up with tears. 'Harry, I'm so sorry about everything.'

I wasn't sure but I thought his lower lip trembled slightly. He put his arms around me and held me tightly. 'I'm just glad you're okay,' he whispered. 'Nothing else matter just now.'

** Draco **

Okay. So I was lying on my stomach on my bed alone in my dormitory, having thrown out my four roommates and told them to leave me in peace for the rest of the afternoon. I was in an extremely bad mood. Snape was furious with me, I was no closer to fixing the situation with Harry and Carlos, and I hadn't even _seen_ Carlos for forty-nine … no wait, fifty hours.

There was a knock on my dormitory door.

'Who is it?' I called grumpily.

'It's me.'

'Carlos?' I jumped off my bed and smoothed down my hair. Although I spent ninety-nine percent of my time thinking about him, it was still a shock to hear his voice at my door. 'Come in!'

He stepped inside the door and peered around at my dormitory. I tried not to think about the fact that it was the first time he had been in my bedroom.

'Hey. Long time no see,' I said casually. 'How are things?'

He shrugged listlessly and sat down on my bed.

_Oh my god. Carlos is on my bed_.

'Are you all right?' I asked him. He seemed restless.

'I've had some really amazing news,' he told me. 'But also some really bad news.'

'Oh?' I said.

'Well, the great part is that I'm not a Horcrux anymore.'

_Uh oh._ 'You're – you're not? How is that possible?'

'Well, I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say that I found someone who knew how to break that spell.'

A million questions were circling in my mind_. Who? How? When? And what the hell am I going to do when the Dark Lord finds out?_ I was as good as dead. Wait … what was the bad news?

'What's the bad news?' I asked him.

Carlos sighed and flopped backwards onto my pillow.

_Oh my god. Carlos is lying on my pillow._

'It's about Harry. Harry and me.'

'Have you broken up?' I asked him, trying not to sound hopeful.

Carlos sighed yet again. 'No. But I think we will. He's – he's been seeing someone else.' Carlos breathed in sharply. I suspected he was trying to hold back tears. Normally I would laugh at any man (and in my most scathing moments, any girl) who cried, but I could easily make an exception for Carlos. His sensitivity was perfectly balanced by his masculinity.

'He cheated on you?' I asked, this time barely managing to conceal my glee.

'No … I don't know. Maybe it was before we were together. But … well, it's complicated.'

I nodded sympathetically, not really having a clue what he was going on about except for the part about Carlos soon being single.

But even the thought that I might have a chance with Carlos again couldn't distract me from the terrifying truth: that I might be about to die.

** Neville **

'Harry, that's _amazing_ news!' I exclaimed, hugging him.

'I know, isn't it great? Hermione's all right!' Harry said happily. 'Have you seen Carlos? I can't wait to tell him the great news!'

'Sorry, Harry, I haven't,' I told him.

'Okay, well, I'm going to keep looking. See you later,' he said, and headed back out of the portrait hole. I sat back down in my comfy chair in front of the fire and tried to get on with my essay again, but I was suddenly too excited. Hermione was awake! I was desperate to go and see her. I had to tell her that I knew about the baby and find out once and for all whether it was mine or not.

_Bang_.

I jumped in fright at the sound of the common room door slamming. Twisting round, I saw a flash of red hair as Ginny stomped through the common room.

'Hey, hey, hey, what's the matter?' I cried, jumping up. I caught hold of her arm and pulled her towards me. She was breathing hard and looked utterly furious, but as I held her, her angry expression turned to one of utter distress.

'Ginny?' I ventured.

'It's Hermione.'

'Yeah, I just heard! It's fantastic that she's awake, isn't it?' I marvelled.

'That's not what I'm talking about,' she said impatiently.

_Oh no_. I felt sick. 'Has – has something happened?' I asked, feeling dizzy with dread.

'Too right, something's happened,' Ginny spat. 'I just found out that she's pregnant.'

'Oh … that … yeah, I know. Ron told me,' I said cautiously, half-expecting a tirade of anger from her because I hadn't told her.

'Yeah, but what Ron doesn't know is that he's not the father.' Ginny eyed me furiously and suddenly I wanted to run away. I wondered how she had managed to hold back from killing me for a whole two minutes already.

'Ginny ... I don't know what to say,' I began to murmur. 'Can you ever forgive—'

'It's Harry!' she burst out.

We stared at each other for a second. 'Wait, what?' we both said in confusion.

'Nothing,' I said briskly, realising with relief that she had no idea about me and Hermione after all. 'What do you mean, Harry's the father?'

'Just what I said – they had an affair, she got pregnant, and she's never going to tell my brother that she's actually a dirty, cheating little—' Ginny broke off and punched the wall in anger.

For a second I was confused. Not only had Hermione cheated on Ron with me, but she had also cheated with Harry? When? How? Oh, wait a moment …

'Ginny,' I said carefully. 'How did you find this out?'

'I overheard Harry at Hermione's bedside before she woke up, sort of talking to himself. He was saying he had lied to you about it, that he had told you it was Ron's baby,' she said, wincing as she massaged her bruised knuckles.

'And then Harry said it was his?'

'Yeah … I think so …well, maybe not in so many words, but that was obviously what he meant! Who else's would it be?'

She sat down in an armchair and pulled out her Divination textbook, still looking angry.

I took a deep breath. I was going to have to tell her. I couldn't let her go around telling people Harry had got Hermione pregnant when it was me. _Could I?_

'Ginny,' I began. 'I have to tell you something …'

'What is it?' she asked. I could see nervousness in her eyes, knowledge that I had even worse news for her, and suddenly I couldn't say the words. I cast around for something to say instead.

'Er … I love you,' I murmured without really thinking about it.

_Oops_.

'You – you _what?_' she said faintly.

'Um …'

'Oh.' She turned a bit white. Then a bit red. Then she started cramming books back into her bag. 'Ummm … I have to get to Quidditch practice …'

'But it doesn't start for fifteen minutes,' I pointed out, raising my eyebrows at her as she jumped up.

'See you later,' she called, leaving so hastily that she knocked a chair over, and nearly sent a gaggle of tiny first years flying as she pushed past them out of the common room door.

_Damn._ What had I just done?

** Harry **

'Carlos?' I called. The Ravenclaw common room was fairly deserted. Come to think of it, I had never seen that common room remotely crowded. Maybe that would explain why it was impossible to find a free table in the library without tripping over at least seventeen Ravenclaws.

Only a few scattered groups could be seen in the bluish glow of the fire, most poring over textbooks and long rolls of parchment.

Michael Corner looked up from his studying. 'Carlos isn't here, Harry,' he told me. 'I haven't seen him all day, actually.'

I slumped against the doorframe. 'Thanks, Michael,' I told him glumly.

Turning back out of the door, somebody smacked right into me.

'Oh. Harry.' It was Carlos.

'Hey, baby!' I said enthusiastically. 'I've been looking everywhere for you! Where have you been?'

He shrugged. 'Around.' He glanced at the wall and then studied his nails.

'Did you hear about—' I began.

'Hermione? Yeah,' he interrupted shortly.

I stared at him for a moment. Carlos looked grumpy, the way he only ever did when he first woke up in the morning. But it was past dinner time.

'Is something wrong?'

'Why don't you tell me?' he retorted quickly.

'Er … okay … except that I don't know.'

'Well maybe you should come and find me when you _do_ know. Excuse me.' And he pushed past me and disappeared up the stairs to his common room.

I glanced around me in utter confusion. Michael Corner shrugged at me.

'Bloody men,' I muttered as I left.

** Luna **

I bumped into Ron the next day on my way to the hospital wing to see Hermione.

'Hey,' we both greeted each other shyly.

'So how's she doing?' I asked.

'Good,' Ron replied, nodding enthusiastically. 'Professor Lovegood – I mean, your dad – has just been in to see her to check that there's no lasting damage from the spell, but I'm sure she'll be out of the hospital wing in no time at all!'

'That's really great, Ron,' I said, and I really meant it. 'I'm so glad.'

'Yeah, me too.'

'Well … I was just going to go and see her,' I said awkwardly.

'Great! I'm just going to grab some food. I barely ate the last couple of days and now I'm starving!' Ron replied. 'I'll maybe see you up there in a bit?'

I nodded. I was slightly shaken by how normal Ron was suddenly being with me. Did that mean that he had completely forgotten that anything weird had happened between us? Or just that he was no longer feeling guilty about it because Hermione was all right?

Either way, I was still feeling very odd about the whole thing, but I was determined to be there for Hermione. I waved goodbye to Ron and headed to the infirmary.

Neville Longbottom was sitting beside Hermione's bed. I was almost relieved. Lately, I'd been feeling really guilty when I was with Hermione, not to mention jealous that she was married to Ron, and having someone else there eased the pain a little.

'Hermione, I don't know what to do,' Neville was saying in that slightly whiny tone of his. Don't get me wrong, I thought Neville was great … but he was just so insecure … it got a little old after a while.

'What _can_ we do, Neville,' Hermione replied softly.

I hesitated at the door. I've never been one to eavesdrop, really. Why was I doing it now?

'Everyone thinks it's Harry you had an affair with,' Neville told her.

Hermione dropped her head into her hands. 'I know.'

'Sooner or later the rumour will get back to Ron, and what are you going to do, just deny it?'

'I – I don't know!' Hermione exclaimed, sounding harassed.

'And Harry knows the truth – there's no way he'll cover for us if it's his own reputation on the line,' Neville said. 'Especially if Ron confronts him.'

'What are we going to do, Neville?' Hermione moaned.

In shock, I stumbled backwards away from the hospital wing door. I ran all the way back to my dormitory, where I sat on my bed, breathing hard and trying to sort out my thoughts. I felt totally numb.

Ron and I had been feeling incredibly guilty over a kiss that didn't even happen. Hermione was having someone else's baby. What was wrong with this picture?

** Carlos **

Harry and Hermione.

_Harry _and_ Hermione!_

How on earth was this possible? When could it have even happened?

I almost wished Ginny hadn't told me anything. I had finally been happy, everything had been perfect for those ten precious minutes … then it had all fallen apart.

And now I just couldn't face him. I couldn't face Hermione, either. In fact, I couldn't even face any of their friends.

The only person I could stand to be around was …

'Santiero, what the hell is up with you?' Draco drawled as he lounged on his bed flicking through the Daily Prophet. 'You've been mooning around here looking miserable for two days now.'

'Nothing, I'm fine. I just feel like hanging around here, all right? And anyway, I promised you I'd help you, didn't I? So here I am, ready to help!' I knew I sounded slightly manic. I couldn't help it. I'd never had my heart broken before.

'Carlos … I'm your friend, I'm here for you,' Draco said, suddenly taking on a look of utmost sincerity. Though most of the time I was highly suspicious of Draco's motives, at the moment I could see that he really, really cared about me.

I stared at him, suddenly realising the one thing I could do that might take away some of the pain that filled my chest. Draco looked back at questioningly, a shy smile wavering on his lips.

And then I kissed him.

** Ginny **

I had been turning the Harry and Hermione news over and over in my head. And the more I thought about it, the more convinced I became …

I was still in love with Harry.

It made sense. It certainly explained why I was so upset about it all.

And yes, I know I had been slightly infatuated with Neville lately. But that was clearly just transference. I was projecting the feelings for Harry I had been burying for months onto Neville. It was so obvious now.

But I was torn. I wanted to confront Harry about it. I wanted to tell Ron everything. I wanted to storm up to that hospital wing and kick Hermione's ass.

But most of all, I just wanted to stay in my room and spend the whole week crying.

Plus, I felt incredibly guilty for telling Carlos. He had caught me at a weak moment and I hadn't been able to help blurting it out. But now he was avoiding Harry and looked horribly depressed when he should have been enjoying the first taste of freedom he'd ever had.

I felt guilty about Neville too, I was totally messing with his head. One minute I was all over him, the next I was so preoccupied with Harry and Hermione that I barely even noticed when Neville was in the room. And now he had said he loved me. What was I meant to do now?

I heard a set of footsteps from behind me and turned to see Harry descending from his dormitory.

'Hey,' he greeted me.

I turned my back on him without replying.

'Are you okay?' he persisted, sitting opposite me. 'You've been awfully quiet the last few days.'

I raised my eyebrows but kept reading my book.

'_Ginny?_' he said, sounding a little frustrated. 'Why won't you talk to me, what have I done?'

I snapped my book shut. 'I can't believe you need to ask!'

'Okay, this is just getting silly. First Carlos and now you – what the hell is going on?'

'You know fine well, you sneaky, lying, little … god, how could you do this to Ron?! He's meant to be your best friend!'

'Have you lost your mind? What on earth are you talking about?' Harry cried.

Ron appeared on the stairs now, closely followed by Neville.

'Hey, I heard shouting, what's going on?' Ron asked, frowning.

'Why don't you ask Harry,' I said and raised my eyebrows pointedly at Harry, who was now staring at me like I was insane.

'Harry?' Ron asked uncertainly.

'Ron, mate, your sister's lost it,' Harry replied, shaking his head. 'I don't know what I'm supposed to have done.'

'How dare you talk about me like that!' I cried.

'Ginny will you please just tell me what's wrong?' Ron sighed.

'He's a lying scumbag, that's what's wrong,' I retorted.

'She's insane, that's what's wrong,' Harry muttered hotly.

'What's wrong with you two?' Neville asked, glancing from me to Harry warily. _Great_. The last thing I needed was for Neville to get jealous of Harry and I.

The portrait hole opened and someone else came into the common room.

It was Professor Lovegood, wearing a very serious expression.

'Harry, Ron,' he said. 'I need to speak to you urgently.'

** Ron **

Harry, Ginny, Neville and I all followed Lovegood silently to his office, where he conjured chairs for us all and surveyed sadly.

'What's the matter?' Harry asked. 'Did you – did you get it wrong about Carlos? Was the Horcrux not really neutralised?'

Lovegood sighed. 'Yes and no.'

Harry gave a moan and dropped his head into his hands. 'Oh, god … Carlos …'

'Carlos is fine, Harry. He's definitely not a Horcrux anymore.'

Harry looked up again. 'Well, what's wrong then?'

'The Horcrux wasn't neutralised. It was transferred to someone else.'

We all glanced at each other in alarmed confusion.

Then it hit me.

In shock, I stared, at Professor Lovegood, who was looking at me with a kind of tragic expression. He gave a slight nod.

'Hermione,' I whispered.


	11. Chapter 11

** Draco **

'Carlos … I'm your friend, I'm here for you.' I looked pleadingly at Carlos, begging him to confide in me. He looked so lost and miserable. I'd have done anything to take away his pain.

Carlos stared back at me with a very strange expression on his face. He moved towards me. I had no idea what he was about to do. I actually took half a step backwards from him out of surprise at his sudden proximity, but he only stopped when he was millimetres away from me. I could feel his breath on my face. I could see redness spreading across his cheeks, and a determined expression in his eyes. Before I had a second to wonder what he was doing, his lips were on mine.

Our hands were intertwined, our bodies pressed close together and our mouths exploring every inch of each others' lips.

_Hold on. Is this really happening?_ Suddenly I felt dizzy. I couldn't breathe. I pulled away from Carlos and took a step back.

Immediately I regretted it. This might be the only time I ever kissed Carlos, and I was ending it?

'Sorry, Draco. I shouldn't have done that,' Carlos said, staring at the ground.

'No … it's fine.' _Believe me, it's not a problem!_ I thought to myself. _Damn_. What was I thinking, stopping it?

'I – I should go,' Carlos said awkwardly, not taking his eyes off the ground.

'Yeah …' I agreed reluctantly.

'So …' Carlos said slowly.

I tried to smile at him, but I felt paralysed all over. He finally looked up at me and smiled shyly.

Then suddenly we were kissing again.

** Hermione **

I was just dozing off when I heard soft footsteps. I opened one eye. Neville was hovering at the door, looking like he couldn't decide whether to come in or not.

'Neville?' I said blearily.

'Hi … sorry, I didn't meant to wake you … I'll come back later,' he said, and turned towards the door.

'No, no, Neville, it's fine, come in,' I insisted weakly, pulling myself into a sitting position with a lot of effort. Neville rushed to help me arrange me pillows.

'How are you feeling?' he asked me, smiling uncertainly.

'All right. Still a bit tired and woozy.'

He nodded, fidgeting in his chair. He looked almost more restless and awkward than normal.

'Neville … is everything okay?'

'Fine!' he said in an exaggerated tone. 'Couldn't be better!'

'Something's wrong, isn't it?' I asked, feeling panicky.

'No! Hermione, relax!' He looked even more nervous.

'Where's Ron? He said he was coming up at seven and it's almost eight now.'

Neville positively trembled. 'He – he had some stuff to do first so he asked me to come up and keep you company.'

Something just didn't seem to add up. 'He – he doesn't _know_ does he?' I asked fearfully.

'Of course not!,' he exclaimed. 'Don't worry, Mione, I swear he doesn't know about us.'

'Don't call me Mione, Neville,' I moaned. 'It makes me sound like some airhead bimbo.'

'Sorry, Hermione,' he mumbled, hanging his head.

'I suppose it's inevitable that he'll find out though,' I sighed. 'I need to tell him soon, don't I? I should just get it over with.'

Neville nodded. 'Maybe he'll understand. And you know, if Ron doesn't want to know after this, then I'll stand by you. I'll help you raise the baby. I'll even marry you, if that's what you want.'

'What about Ginny?' I asked, surprised.

Neville shrugged. 'I don't know. To be honest, I don't think Ginny and I are going to last that much longer anyway.'

'Really? I thought you were crazy about her!'

He shrugged again. 'I don't know … I suppose I was, for a little while …' he trailed off, looking sheepish.

'Then why did you spend so much time over the past few years talking to me about her? Oh …' It hit me. It was all just an excuse. And excuse to spend time with _me_.

'Neville …'

'It's fine … it's okay, Hermione, really,' he said with an air of serenity about him. He smiled slowly.

'But all this time, all those years … you've had feelings for me?' I cried. 'Why didn't you _tell_ me?'

'Because you were in love with Ron,' Neville pointed out calmly.

I was quiet. It was true. It was still true, in fact.

** Neville **

Ginny and I studied for a while in the common room, trying to keep our minds off Hermione's horrible situation. Finally we gave up trying to concentrate and decided to go and have dinner. As we reached for the portrait hole, it swung open from the outside. Harry climbed into the common room, hesitating and rolling his eyes when he laid eyes on Ginny.

Next to me, I felt Ginny tense up. 'So … how's the cheating arsehole? Knocked up any more married women?'

Harry's eyes flicked from Ginny to me and I felt myself turn red. _Please, please don't say anything, Harry_, I pleaded silently.Ginny was glaring at him. I stood, tense, waiting for Harry to blurt out the truth.

'Well?' Ginny spat. 'What have you got to say for yourself?'

Harry looked ready to explode. Then he seemed to take a deep breath and steel himself.

'I'm going to my dormitory,' he said calmly, through gritted teeth. He gave me a very severe, meaningful look, and with what looked like a great effort, he turned his back on us and climbed the stairs, disappearing out of sight.

'Come on,' I said to Ginny, who was seething with anger, and I led her out of the common room.

'Can you believe him?' Ginny exclaimed, turning to me with a look of disgust. 'He's pathetic. How could he do that to Ron? And how could he take advantage of Hermione like that? And the way he is just completely denying it all? God, it makes me sick!'

'Yeah ..' I murmured softly. _God. I can't do this. I'm going to have to tell her right now_, I thought._ Well … soon_.

Her tirade carried on all the way to the Great Hall and didn't stop when we started eating dinner.

'I always thought he was a nice guy, you know?' she continued, slamming down her goblet and spooning mashed potatoes onto her plate with so much force they splattered over Seamus, sitting beside her. 'I always thought, "isn't it amazing that after all Harry's been through he still turned out a good guy?" you know? But turns out he's just another arsehole.'

Seamus ducked as she reached for the gravy. He exchanged a look with Dean and they left swiftly.

Now that we were alone, I knew I couldn't wait any longer. She was liable to kill the next person to ask her to pass the pumpkin juice.

'Ginny, I have to tell you something.'

'What?' she said distractedly. I could tell she was still mentally cursing Harry.

'Harry didn't get Hermione pregnant,' I suddenly found myself saying. My mouth seemed to be operating independently of my brain.

'What do you mean?' she asked suspiciously.

I swallowed hard. 'She's not having Harry's baby. In fact, they didn't have an affair at all.'

She stared at me. 'So what are you saying? It's Ron's baby after all? Hermione never slept with anyone else?'

'Nooo …. Not exactly. The baby is someone else's …'

'Whose?' she asked, looking at me blankly.

'It's er … it's mine.'

She looked like she was going to laugh. 'Yours?' she repeated incredulously.

'Yeah.'

'Okay,' she said, nodding slowly. Her face had gone completely white. I waited for her to explode at me, but she just sat there calmly for a moment. She pushed her chair back and stood up slowly.

'Ginny …' I said carefully. She turned and started to walk away from the table.

'Ginny!' I called after her. 'Ginny, I'm sorry …'

But in a flash of red hair, she was gone.

** Ginny **

I didn't cry. I was furious, I was devastated, I was humiliated. But I didn't cry.

Instead I found my footsteps leading me through winding corridors and up flights of stairs. I wasn't wholly sure where I was going, but my heart seemed to know.

Harry was sprawled on his bed, surrounded by close to a dozen books and scribbling frantically on a very long roll of parchment.

I knocked on the open door and he glanced up. When he saw that it was me, he sighed, shook his head, and turned his gaze back to his books.

'Ginny, I'm really not in the mood for another fight, okay?' he said wearily. 'I'm so behind with all my homework, it's not even funny.'

'I'm not here to fight with you, Harry,' I said, and my voice came out strangely high and shrill. Harry seemed to notice this too, and he looked back up at me.

'What's wrong?' he asked. His voice sounded slightly odd too, and I could see in his eyes that already he knew what was wrong with me.

'Neville just – just told me …'

'Oh, Ginny …' he said, getting up from his seat. 'I'm so sorry.'

I waited awkwardly as he moved towards me and hesitantly reached out to hug me. The moment his arms went around me I felt warmth coursing through my body. I sank against him and felt his embrace tighten around me.

'It's going to be okay, Ginny,' he whispered into my hair.

I raised my head slightly and looked into his eyes. He looked back at me and for a long while neither of us moved a muscle. I don't even think we breathed. Then I buried my head in his neck.

'Oh, Harry,' I breathed. He smelt amazing. Familiar. It was like coming home. My hands, which had been gripping his shoulders, moved towards his neck. I felt his arms stiffen slightly. My fingers snaked into the hair that brushed the nape of his neck. I was suddenly very aware of his hands resting on my waist.

'Ginny,' he said tensely.

'What?' I whispered, knowing he could feel my breath on his neck. I felt his hands momentarily tighten on my back, then he pulled them away and stepped back from me.

'Ginny,' he said again. His cheeks were flushed, his eyes glassy. I knew that look. I had seen that look on him before.

I moved closer to him again. He didn't back away. He opened his mouth, and then closed it without saying anything. I pressed myself right against him. He didn't flinch.

I kissed him.

For a second he was still. Then suddenly his hands were in my hair, his lips pressing hard against mine, and we were falling onto Seamus's bed.

** Luna **

I always know when I'm dreaming. I love to dream. I go into a world where everything makes sense to me. Everything is beautiful and everything is fair. People understand me, and everyone can see the things I believe in.

In this particular dream I was floating. I was sailing through a sea of fluffy clouds. In front of me was the face I always saw in my dreams. It was blurry and vague at first, but I knew it was him. Now the face was coming closer to me, his features gradually coming into focus. His lips were moving … he was trying to say something to me … but as always, my dream was silent. His face was right in front of me now … he was shaking my shoulder …

'Luna?'

'Urhh …' I mumbled.

'Luna? Wake up!'

'Urhh … arghh!' I cried as I realised the face in front of me was in fact very real. 'Ron! What are you doing?'

I blinked and looked around me. _Oh no_. I had fallen asleep in the common room _again_. Across the room I could see some fifth years sniggering at me.

My gaze snapped back to Ron.

'What are you doing in here?' I asked him, sitting up, smoothing down my hair, and subtly rubbing a hand across my chin to check and see if I'd been drooling in my sleep. _All clear_.

'I needed to see you. I – I didn't know who else to talk to,' he said, blushing.

'What's the matter?' I asked. Immediately I realised what must be wrong. He had clearly just found out about his wife carrying someone else's baby. 'Did you find out about Hermione?'

He nodded.

'I'm really sorry, Ron,' I told him sincerely.

'When did you find out?' he asked me heavily, slumping beside me.

'Yesterday,' I admitted, guiltily. 'I'm really sorry for not telling you, but I wanted to speak to her about it first.'

'Hermione doesn't know yet,' Ron said, shaking his head sadly.

'Eh – what?' I asked, blinking in confusion, knowing I must have misheard him. Maybe my ears were full of Korkypines … they can make you go deaf if you let them breed in there, you know.

'I know I have to tell her, but how can I?'

'Wait … what?' I said. It still wasn't making any sense. _Those damn Korkypines_.

'I mean, what am I meant to say, _hey, baby, guess what? You're a Horcrux and we're going to have to kill you to save the Wizarding World?_'

'WHAT?!' I exclaimed. 'Hermione's a _WHAT_?'

It definitely wasn't just the Korkypines.

'But you just said you knew! When we did that spell the other day, the Horcrux was transferred from Carlos to Hermione,' Ron told me, his confusion seeming to momentarily distract him from his grief.

'Oh my goodness,' I said, shaking my head in disbelief.

'Yeah … and I told Harry and the others I wanted to tell her myself, but now I don't think I can. It's too awful.' He sighed again, then frowned. 'Wait a minute … if you didn't know about this, then what were you talking about?'

'I … er … I … nothing. I don't know.'

Ron stared at me. His gaze bored deep into my soul. I knew he knew I was lying. But he dropped the matter. He had more important things to deal with for now.

** Carlos **

As I left Draco's dormitory, I was so confused. I had been sure Harry was the only person I was interested in, but now I my affections were suddenly split between two people. I wished I could just rewind time and not kiss Draco, but it was done, and now I couldn't stop thinking about Draco's soft lips, and whether I would ever get to taste them again.

I was furious with myself. I felt dirty, and I knew the only way I would feel better would be to come clean to Harry.

But I couldn't do it. Not yet. Instead, I found my anger focusing on somebody else's infidelity. My feet carried me to the Gryffindor common room and I headed straight for the seventh year boys' dormitory. I had to tell Ron the truth about Hermione. Then I could worry about my own lie.

As I climbed the stairs I passed Ginny Weasley. She barely looked at me and mumbled hello, before disappearing very swiftly. If I wasn't so preoccupied I'd have wondered what was up with her.

Harry was sitting alone in his dormitory. As soon as he saw me his face turned red. _Yeah, you should be embarrassed_, I thought angrily. _You got Hermione pregnant!_

'Where's Ron?' I asked in a business-like manner.

'I – I don't know,' Harry began. 'Carlos, I need to talk to you –'

'I'm here,' Ron said, walking into the room. 'What's up, Carlos?'

'Hermione cheated on you, Ron,' I said briskly, without giving myself time to think about it and change my mind. 'With Harry.'

'What?' said Ron quietly.

'Harry is the father of her baby. They slept together before you got married. I'm so, so sorry, Ron, but I thought you should know and none of your friends seem to have the guts to tell you.'

I glared at Harry as I said this.

'Harry?' Ron said faintly, looking pleadingly at his friend, silently begging Harry to deny it. Harry was staring at the ground. I couldn't read his expression. I felt unbelievably guilty for telling Ron, especially after what I had just done with Draco, but I just couldn't stand by and let Ron get hurt while everyone else knew the truth.

'Harry, is it true?' asked Ron.

'No,' said a new voice from the doorway. _Neville_. 'It's not true.'

Harry's gaze snapped up at Neville's words. Something silent seemed to pass between the two of them.

Ron was staring at us all hopefully. 'So it _is_ my baby, then?'

Neville shook his head. I noticed that he was shaking violently and had turned a nasty shade of green. 'Hermione slept with me, not with Harry. The baby is mine. I'm sorry Ron.'

I was startled. I glanced at Harry questioningly and he nodded at me. I felt sick. What had I just done?

We waited with bated breath for Ron's reaction. He said nothing for a moment. Then he swayed slightly and sank onto the nearest bed. I think it was Seamus's.

'Jesus,' Ron murmured, his head dropping into his hands.

Harry looked at me and motioned towards the door. The pair of us moved away towards it, leaving Ron and Neville alone. Neville glanced at me in alarm, but I shrugged at him and turned away. He had got himself into this mess, and then let Harry take the blame. He was on his own now.

Harry closed the door behind us and leaned against it, closing his eyes. He looked as though he was in pain.

'I'm sorry,' I said stiffly. 'Ginny told me it was you and I believed it. I should have had more faith in you. I should have known you would never betray your friends like that.'

Harry coloured and looked at the ground. He still didn't say anything.

'Can you forgive me?' I swallowed hard, knowing even if Harry forgave this, there was still the small matter of my own infidelity to confess.

Harry nodded. I moved towards him and touched his arm gently. He flinched slightly.

'You're angry with me,' I said miserably.

Harry looked into my eyes and shook his head vehemently. 'Honestly, I'm not, Carlos!' he exclaimed. 'I'm just worried about everything that's going on –'

We were interrupted by the door slamming open and Ron marching out of the dormitory.

'Ron?' Harry called after him as Ron sped away from us down the stairs and out of the common room. 'Ron, are you all right? Where are you going?'

I peered into the dormitory. Neville was sitting with his head in his hands.

'I'd better go after him,' said Harry, and took off after Ron.

I hesitated, then went to Neville. I still thought what he had done was despicable, but I had tasted infidelity now and I could at least sympathise with him.

'What did he say?' I asked.

'Nothing,' Neville replied. 'He didn't say a word, he didn't even look at me. I tried to apologise and he just jumped up and ran out. I almost wish he'd just shouted at me or something. He's probably never going to talk to me again.'

'He's just in shock. I'm sure he'll speak to you soon and you can sort things out. And in the meantime you've got your friends.'

'Everyone hates me,' Neville whined miserably.

'Well …' I said.

'Yeah, I know, I deserve it,' he said pitifully. 'I wish I could fix it all, but there's nothing I can do. I've broken Ginny's heart, I've wrecked Ron and Hermione's marriage …'

I sat down beside him and put my arm around him. He looked up at me gratefully. I couldn't help forgiving those big brown eyes.

'Things might work out, you never know, Neville.'

I didn't really believe it, but Neville seemed to take a little comfort in it.

Now if only I could work up the nerve to tell Harry what I had done as well.

But there was something else distracting me. All I could think about were Draco's soft lips, and whether I would ever get to taste them again …

** Harry **

'Ron!' I shouted. I ran to catch him up. 'Ron, please talk to me!'

I grabbed his arm and he spun round.

'You knew, Harry?' he said in a hurt tone. 'You knew, and you didn't tell me? I thought you were my best friend!'

'I'm sorry, Ron,' I said, full of regret. 'Hermione promised she would tell you herself but then she got hurt and I didn't know what to do.'

Ron shook me off and carried on down the corridor at the same fast pace. I chased after him.

'Where are you going?'

He didn't answer.

'Are you going to see Hermione?' I asked warily.

Ron stopped and turned to me. 'No. I'm going to see my _real_ best friend.'

And he left me standing in the corridor feeling confused and hurt.

'Harry?' came another voice. _Ginny_.

'Er … hi,' I said, trying to stop myself blushing. I hadn't seen her since we had done what we did in my dormitory and then both ran out of there as fast as possible.

'What's up with Ron?' she asked worriedly.

'He knows.'

'Ah.' She nodded.

'How are you doing?' I asked, stalling as I tried to think of something to talk about.

'I'm okay,' she replied.

'Have you, er, spoken to Neville?'

She shook her head. Then she gave a small laugh. 'I suppose I can't be angry with him any more considering what you and I just did …'

'I know … _twice_ …' I said, shaking my head.

We laughed nervously. I didn't know what else to do. 'Are you going to tell Neville?'

She shrugged. 'Are you going to tell Carlos?'

I shrugged. 'I think I have to.'

Her expression changed, but I couldn't tell if it was disappointment or happiness she felt.

'So,' she said nervously. 'So, does this mean you still like girls as well as boys?'

Now I knew my face was red.

'I – I don't know.'

She nodded, turning red as well.

'I should go and find Ron,' I told her.

She nodded. 'I think I'll go and see Hermione,' she said. She must have seen my look of alarm. 'Don't worry, I'm not going to yell at her. It would be a bit hypocritical of me now, wouldn't it? No, I'm going to go and warn her that Ron knows the truth.'

I nodded. We parted ways. I tried not to think about what we had done on Seamus's bed just a few hours ago.

I still loved Carlos, nothing would change that.

But there was this voice in my head, a very quiet voice that was usually drowned out, but it was there nonetheless. It was telling me that I was still very attracted to Ginny.

And not just Ginny. Very occasionally, for just a few seconds at a time, I would feel as though I was attracted to women again instead of men. During those moments, I was repulsed by the idea of being with a man. But then the voice would disappear again and it was girls that repulsed me.

I was so confused. Why couldn't I make up my mind?

** Ron **

As I made my way to the Ravenclaw common room, I thought I was looking for a shoulder to cry on. But it was obvious from Luna's expression when she saw me that she already knew about Neville and Hermione, and I realised that what I really wanted was someone to take out my pain on. _Everyone_ had known, and none of them had bothered to tell me.

'So you knew as well, did you?' I said darkly.

Luna went red and didn't look at me.

'I thought so,' I muttered.

'Ron, I'm sorry, I wanted to tell you!' she cried, her big eyes looking at me pleadingly.

My anger evaporated and suddenly I was only feeling regret. 'I can't believe I felt guilty for almost kissing you and all the while she – she – she …'

'I know, Ron,' Luna said soothingly. She moved towards me and put her arms around me. It was nice.

'Luna, I don't know what I'd do without you,' I murmured.

She gave a tiny nervous laugh. I breathed deeply and the sweet scent of her hair engulfed my nostrils. For a few seconds I almost forgot about Hermione and her infidelity. Things would be so simple if I could just leave Hermione and fall in love with Luna. But things were more complicated. I was married. And no matter what she had done to me, I still loved my wife.

'I'm only seventeen … I can't get divorced,' I found myself whispering.

'What?' Luna jumped back and stared at me as though I was insane. 'You want to _divorce_ her?'

'No … I don't know … I just wish things were simpler. We're still at school for goodness' sake! We shouldn't be dealing with this sort of stuff.'

'No, you're right … we should be dealing with Horcruxes and defeating Dark Lords,' she muttered.

'Very funny,' I said.

'I'm not trying to be funny, I'm being serious. I know this is a horrible thing to happen to you, but there are still bigger things going on. Hermione doesn't even know she's a Horcrux yet, does she?'

I shook my head. In my anguish I had actually forgotten about that.

'You have to tell her Ron. I know you're angry with her –'

'Angry? I don't even think I can look at her!' I cut in acidly.

'But still, someone has to tell her … if you can't then you'd better find someone else to do it.'

I sighed. I knew at the moment there was only one other person who cared as much about Hermione as I did.

I would have to ask Neville to tell her.


End file.
